Attari, March 4
Smartly dressed, Kashmir Singh, who languished for a record 35 years in almost all central jails of Pakistan, today walked to an emotional reunion with his wife and other family members at the Attari joint check-post.
“It is my second birth and I shall start life afresh and support my wife, Parmjit Kaur, who struggled hard to take care of children in my absence,” said Kashmir Singh in choked voice.
Parmjit Kaur led a very hard life to rear her children Amarjit Singh, Shashpal Singh and Manjit Kaur. She even worked as a maid to earn her livelihood. ''All pain and suffering that I went through is over,'' she said after receiving her husband.
His appearance has totally changed, said Tarlok Singh, brother-in-law of Kashmir Singh. He was only 32 when he was arrested in
Rawalpindi, but returns as an old man of 67 years.
“I could recognise Parmjit Kaur even from the Pakistan side,” he quipped when someone asked whether he could recognise the lady who was only 27 when he left for Pakistan without revealing his mission.
The memory of Kashmir Singh seems to be sharp, as he immediately recollected many small incidents when he was in India.
His village friend G.C.Bhardwaj, a retired news director, All India Radio, said Kashmir Singh was a daredevil and would risk his life when he was young.
He was arrested in 1973 in Pakistan on charges of espionage and was on the death row in a jail in Kot Lakhpat Rai Central Jail, Lahore.
He crossed the zero line at 12.45 p.m. to a rousing reception on the Indian side. He was given a warm send-off by politicians and senior officials from the Pakistan side.
“I was sleeping when my husband prepared tea himself and left for Pakistan,” said Parmjit Kaur.
She thanked G.C. Bhardwaj, who first took up the case of Kashmir Singh in 2004 with General Pervez Musharraf.
It was one Milakh Raj, also an Indian spy, released from Pakistan in 1985 who had informed the family that Kashmir Singh was still alive in Pakistan.
Kashmir Singh, alias Shallo Singh, of Nangal Choran village in Mahilpur block of Hoshiarpur district, was arrested in Rawalpindi on espionage charges sentenced to death by an army court. Later, the death sentence was converted into life imprisonment during the regime of late Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistan human rights minister Ansar Burney, who had traced Singh during a visit to Lahore’s Central Jail as part of his work for prisoners’ rights and jail reforms, his wife and children were among the Pakistani delegation that accompanied him up to the border.
Burney told Punjab’s public relations minister Bikram Singh Majitha and BJP Member Parliament Avinash Rai Khanna that he would definitely take up the cases of other Indian prisoners who have been languishing in the jails of his country. “I have never seen such an electrifying experience at the border and have extended invitation to Burney on behalf of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal so that the issue of other prisoners could be taken up by providing him details about them, besides thanking him for the initiative taken by him,” said Majithia, who was also accompanied by Gulzar Singh Ranike, minister, animal husbandry, and an Akali MLA, Amarpal Singh Bony.
“I thank President Pervez Musharraf and human rights minister Ansar Burney,” said Kashmir Singh as he arrived at the border.
He said he would like to go to Pakistan, this time on a valid passport, to lay a “chadar” at the shrine of Baba Farid, the first Punjabi poet whose hymns are enshrined in Guru Granth Sahib.
The release of Kashmir Singh is being viewed as an important event in Indo-Pak relations, as nobody from India and Pakistan, who had spent more than three decades in respective jails, had been released so far. Earlier, another Indian spy Roop Lal, who had spent 25 years in Pakistan jails, was released in April 2004. Like Kashmir Singh, Roop Lal was also sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
