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My Years in a
Pakistani Prison
Kishorilal has shared all his experiences that he had during his short stint as a spy. Short in the sense because he was captured on his fourth assignment and was sent to jail. He has narrated all: how he became spy and put his life into danger and how the Military Intelligence (MI) made false promises to him, that they would help him and his family as and when needed. Though he was expecting a warm welcome after his release from a Pakistani prison on September 18, 1974, no one turned up at the border to receive him, even the MI refused to recognise him. The sequences of events are well described in the book. What first attracted the author to spying was his meeting with one of his elder brother’s friends Bhimsen who told him about the adventure and excitement involved in the job. He later introduced him to some MI officials at Jullundur who selected him and gave brief training before sending him to Pakistan. His name was changed from Kishorilal to Saleem. He was told that the MI would take care of his family in his absence. Kishorilal completed his first three assignments successfully but the fourth assignment proved very disastrous, shattering all his dreams and the excitement involved in the job. The Field Intelligence Unit captured him along with his colleague Gulzar Masih at Kasoor in Pakistani Punjab on September 18, 1966. Later, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the violation of some unspecified provisions of the Official Secrets Act of Pakistan. During his captivity in various jails, he met many inmates and jail staff. While some of them were kind hearted, others were very rude who used abusive language and treated him like an animal. His worst experiences included the ‘hotplate’ treatment given to him in the Pakistani Army’s Quarter Guard. He was forced to sit on a chair heated by an electric plate. The meeting with Magistrate Faisal Tehseen Memon was also a bad experience. The magistrate forced him to accept his name as Amrik Singh. The experience at ‘Kasoori’-Jail Mian Wali, meant for hardened criminals, was terrible. Every morning he was given five lashes with the whip and 10 kg of twigs to be pounded for making ‘munji’ (rope) by the evening. He had some good experiences too. In Mianwali Jail, a Pakistani prisoner, Bashir Ahmad of Sargodha, gifted him a ‘gutka’ of Guru Granth Sahib that belonged to his father, a Sikh by birth who converted to Islam and remained in Pakistan at the time of Partition. He can’t forget the courage of Sheikh Ehsan Ghani, the superintendent of Multan Central Jail who saved the lives of nearly two dozen Indian prisoners, including him, when a Pakistani ranger wanted to shoot them on the pretext of rioting in the jail. He had a very difficult time during the 1971 war. However, a glimmer of hope appeared when he came to know about the exchange of prisoners of war between Pakistan and India. He was later released along with some other prisoners in accordance with the Simla Agreement in 1974. Through this book, the author has tried to show his bitterness towards government agencies that don’t come forward to help people like him who have served the nation by risking their lives.
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