2 months on,Pak hands over Chamel Singh’s body

His family claims that Chamel Singh,a resident of Pargwal border belt of Jammu district,had ignorantly crossed over to other side from near his border hamlet in 2008.

The 40-year-old victim was allegedly thrashed to death by the wardens of the Pakistan prison,where he was serving a five-year imprisonment for crossing the border illegally.

On Wednesday,two of his sons Dara and Deepak were present at the border post to receive Chamel’s body.

“We can perform the last rites now. My father can rest in peace now,” Dara said,even as tears rolled down his cheeks.

He said that his family doesn’t know how Chamel crossed over to Pakistan,but added that they will “raise the matter at international level so that those who killed his father be punished”.

Dara said that it was on December 22,2008 that his father went missing from their Bhalwal Mula village,situated close to the border in Pargwal area of Akhnoor,and “perhaps crossed the border by mistake.”

“We had no idea about his whereabouts till October,2012,when my maternal uncle,Mangal Singh,who lives in Mukerain in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab,received a letter from my father. In the letter my father had mentioned that he was in the Central Jail,Lahore,where he was serving a five-year term on charges of spying and would be back after completing the same,” Deapak added.

He said that family was hoping to reunite with Chamel,but some media reports January 17 revealed that “our father was tortured to death in the Kot Lakhpat Jail.”

“Since then we had running from pillar to post to get his body back to perform the last rites,” Dara said,adding that neither the state nor the central government helped them.

He said that after Chamel,the only earning member of the family,went missing,they had to face hard times. Two of his younger brothers had to drop out to work as daily wagers.

Dara said that he was in constant touch with Pakistan High Commission in Islamabad for the return of Chamel’s body. “The Pakistan government had marked a judicial enquiry into the death of my father,but the report is yet to come,” he added.

Interestingly,the sons disclosed that on February 13,they received a letter of his father in which he had said that he had written at least 10 letters to them. “We never received any letter from him except the one in October 2012 ,” Dara said,alleging that Chamel’s letters were blocked by the Pakistan government.