Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, January 12

Maintaining the 29-year-old tradition, India and Pakistan have exchanged their lists of nuclear installations and civilian prisoners recently. But the list finds no mention of 54 Indian prisoners of war (POWs) who have been languishing in Pakistan jails for decades, leaving their kin a dejected lot once again. The Pakistani list includes only 55 Indian civilian prisoners and 227 fishermen.

Every time both governments exchange prisoners or take up confidence-building measures, a new hope emerges among such families.

Following Wing Commander Abhinandan’s release, even Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had urged Pakistan to release these POWs, but in vain. Though Pakistani never admitted about the capture of any such Indian Army man, there have been facts which substantiate the claims of their kin.

“Had Pakistani civilians not recorded video of Wing Commander Abhinandan while he was being nabbed in Horran village, which went viral, his fate might have been different,” said Brig Navdeep Mathur (retd), adding that India released over 9,000 of Pakistani after the 1971 war, but could not get its 54.

Several civilians and spies, who returned from Pakistan jails, have spoken of meeting those missing defence personnel.

Talking to The Tribune, Satish Kumar of Ferozepur, who remained in Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore, for spying, said he met several Indian POWs. “Around 30 or 40 POWs are in the jails of Lahore, Quetta and Rawalpindi. Of them, many have lost their sanity after years of torture and confinement,” he said.

A Pakistani newspaper, Sunday Observer, wrote on December 5, 1971 that five Indian pilots had been captured alive, one of them being Flt-Lt Tombay (Tambay). Time magazine, in its December 27, 1971 issue, carried a picture of Indian soldiers behind bars in Pakistan, including one Major AK Ghosh.

In 1975, Major Ashok Suri managed to send a letter from Karachi jail to his father in which he wrote that about 20 Indian officers were in Pakistani jails.

In 1983, a delegation of the relatives of six missing Indian POWs was sent to Pakistan to identify them among the Indian detainees but the Pakistani authorities refused to show all in their custody. In 1988, a book penned by a British woman, Victoria Schoffield, titled ‘Bhutto: Trial and Execution’ mentiond about Indian POWs in Kot Lakhpat jail close to where Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was kept in solitary confinement.

The matter has been raised a number of times in the Indian Parliament, reminders have been sent to the United Nations and the International Red Cross Society, but to no avail.

Dr Simmi Waraich, whose father was taken as POW from Ferozepur in 1971, has demanded that the government should open a separate cell in the Ministry of External Affairs to deal with such cases. She also sought from the defence ministry to have a separate category for ‘missing in action’ personnel and a proper desk which can make efforts to bring them back.

After Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case, the government can even think of approaching the International Court of Justice in this matter. Though the chances are bleak, kin still hope that a few of them may be still alive.

Earlier, in response to information sought by Advocate HC Arora under RTI, the Ministry of Defence had admitted that these men were believed to be in Pakistani custody. In another such case, the Ministry of External Affairs had filed an affidavit in the High Court stating that there was no response from Pakistan so far to all letters written by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad seeking details about these prisoners.