Prisoners of hope

“I received a letter from the defence ministry that they have formed a cell to trace the 54 POWs. We are religiously chasing them but they have not called us even once to seek any details. Nothing seems to be happening. The day my brother,Wing Commander HS Gill’s plane was captured in 1971,the Pakistan radio announced his name. There were reports of his being lodged at Fort Attock,a military jail,in a book by Mohanlal Bhaskar,who was repatriated in 1974. I was part of a delegation that was sent to Pakistan in 1983 but we were shown no prisoners of war. The government expects us to trace our missing. Why can’t its agencies do it and at least tell us whether they are alive or not. Its the least the government can do for his (HS Gill’s) wife and two children,” GS Gill said.

The Committee for Monitoring Missing Defence Personnel (CMMDP) to trace the 54 POWs says its mandate is to release all inputs received on the missing in action people to the relevant government agencies.

“We do not have any wherewithal to investigate the case in a foreign country. We pass on the information to relevant agencies to authenticate. It is presumed that these POWs are lodged in Pakistan jails but there is no confirmation from any of these agencies,” says its secretary Group Captain Ghar Singh.

Some are corresponding with the defence ministry asking it for updates on the working of the cell and its progress. “Right from Americans to Bangladeshis,they are all looking for their men missing in action. Pakistan released only those whose names were disclosed to the International Red Cross. If they are alive,their cases should be followed and they be brought back. If not,then we have the right to know when and where they died,” says Dr Simi Waraich,whose father Major Sharanjitpal Singh Waraich of 15 Punjab Regiment was caught at Hussainwala border in Punjab during the Indo-Pak war of 1971.

For Faridabad-based Bharat Kumar Suri,the closure had come when when his 23-year-old younger brother,Ashok Suri was declared killed in action in the 1971 war. But a scribbled note received from Ashok Suri in December 1974 from Karachi jail mentioned he was alive and with 19 other Indian officers. The two lines changed the life of his father,Ram Swaroop Suri.

“Our father pursued the case till his death in 2001. He made innumerable rounds of the Ministry of External Affairs and brought together 40 families of PoWs. Unfortunately,the government did little. Some families by moving the Gujarat High Court have been able to get retirement benefits for the families. But they are alive and should be treated so,” says Bharat Kumar Suri.

Now the Missing Defence Personnel Relatives’ Association formed by Suri too has disintegrated. “We have all lost confidence in the government. Now just seven to eight families try to meet and talk and stay in touch. The others have perhaps given up hope,” he adds.