New Delhi/Ferozepur, Sept 24
The Army is learnt to have taken up the case of soldier Jaspal Singh, who has reportedly been traced to Oman, 41 years after he went missing in the battle at Hussainiwala during the Indo-Pak war. Through the Ministry of External Affairs, the Army has sough details of the missing soldier from the Indian Embassy in Oman.
Jaspal has been presumed dead by his family. His name occupies a pride of place as a martyr at the 15 Punjab Memorial plaque in Hussainiwala.
The soldier's name, however, does not figure on the list of 54 Prisoners of War that India has handed to Pakistan several times. Sources confirmed that an Armyman of the same name from the Ferozepore area has been missing since the 1971 war during operation 'Cactus Lily'.
Sources said Indian authorities had made some inquiries with their Oman counterparts afew years back, but it did not yield any result.
Jaspal Singh's 65-year-old wife Baljit Kaur said: "Though I have been in touch with POW families, I am not at all aware that my husband is alive." Baljit Kaur lives at Pamour village in Fatehgarh Sahib. She has been getting a special pension and other benefits. She says she has also written to the Army Chief requesting him to help her find her husband.
Kamaljit Singh, Jaspal's son, was three when his father went missing. "I do not remember much about my father," he said. "Ever since reports about his being alive in Oman surfaced, we have been trying to get in touch with various authorities," he said.
Sukhdev Singh of Ropar's Dubri Boormajra village almost ran into Jaspal Singh in Oman, where the soldier was sent for kitchen services in the island jail in August 2010. Jaspal approached him secretly and told him about his
family.
Jaspal narrated how he and four soldiers of his regiment were captured by the Pakistani Army from the Ferozepur border on December 4, 1971.
He said he and five other POWs were kept in Pakistani jails for some years and then shifted to Oman’s Masira jail and elsewhere.
