POWs release threatens to blow up into a major issue

The question of release of Indian prisoners of war (POWs) from Pakistani custody is threatening to blow up into a major issue with Indian and Pakistani governments having taken conflicting stands on the subject.

While Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is all set to take it up with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf at the Agra summit, the Pakistan government has categorically denied that there are any Indian POWs in its custody.

On the other hand, the families of the POWs have decided to follow Musharraf to Agra to demand release of their kin. They are preparing to raise the matter before the international press a few hours before the summit gets underway.

Missing Defence Personnel Relatives Association (MDPRA) working president Col. (Retd) R.K. Pattu told the Gulf News that, he along with the next of kin of other POWs, would hold a press conference in Agra. The MDPRA submitted a memorandum to Musharraf through the local Pakistan High Commission on Thursday, demanding release of POWs.

The association claims that it has documentary evidence to prove that 56 Indian POWs are languishing in Pakistani jails. While two of these POWs are from 1965's Indo-Pakistan war, 54 were captured during the 1971 war. Lodged at jails in Lahore, Pindi, Mianwali and Attouck, the Indian POWs are said to be in terrible conditions.

According to Balwan Singh, an Indian spy who was released from Kot Lakhpat jail of Lahore in 1998 after spending around a decade in Pakistani custody, majority of POWs have lost their mental balance due to malnutrition and lack of medical care. Singh, a resident of Kathua (Jammu), who was captured by Pakistani army in the Samba sector, said that the POWs were lodged in cells meant for prisoners awaiting death sentence. He claimed that the POWs remembered nothing of their past except their names. Most of the POWs, Singh added, needed support of their cells' walls to stand up.

The then Pakistan prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had agreed to look for the POWs during the Lahore summit of 1999. India's Minister for External Affairs Jaswant Singh on Thursday said that a decision then was taken that a minister each from both countries would be nominated with the liberty of visiting any jail to locate the missing POWs. However, the Kargil conflict and the subsequent coup in Pakistan pushed the matter in the cold storage.

Pattu and families of the POWs blame the Indian government for its soft approach. "Indira Gandhi returned Pakistan's 93,000 soldiers after 1971 war though there was no reciprocity from Pakistan," Pattu said.

Indian government's initial response towards POWs was callous. In the beginning, they were presumed killed in the war. In fact, several of them were to be conferred bravery medals posthumously. The government announced Veer Chakra for Captain Ravinder Kaura but the latter's father L.D. Kaura declined it insisting on seeing his son's body. Kaura's name now figures in the government's list of soldiers who went missing during the 1971 war.

The MDPRA has been writing regularly to human rights commissions and the governments of India and Pakistan. However, there is still no word on their whereabouts. All they have gathered from Pakistan is a letter that Major Ashok Suri managed to send to his now dead father Dr R.S. Suri in 1974. The letter said that there were 20 more Indian officers with him in Attock jail.