General VP Malik (retd) and Air Commodore JL Bhargava (retd), Saturday released senior journalist Chander Suta Dogra’s book — ‘Missing in Action: The prisoners who did not come back’ — at Press Club in Sector 27 here. The book reveals how at least 15 Indian prisoners of war (PoWs) from the 1965 and 1971 wars were left to their fate in Pakistan and were given up by the Indian establishment as “collateral damage”. During a discussion on the book, General Malik said there is inadequate sensitivity about the issue of missing soldiers in public domain in India today because the political leadership does not give it much importance. “We have seen this right from 1972 onwards when there was no military representation at the Shimla Summit, which is why the matter of our PoWs did not get the required attention,” he said. Quoting from the book, he said that the priority of the government even at that time was “not to get our soldiers back, but to bargain for the life of Mujibur Rehman and the recognition of Bangladesh by Pakistan”. “Those were the concerns and priorities of our political leadership in the immediate aftermath of the 1971 war and not the issue of Indian PoWs. Even today there is no dialogue between the defence and political leadership about critical issues relating to the safety and well being of soldiers,” he said. Air Commodore Bhargava, who himself remained a PoW in 1971, and was fortunate to be repatriated, shared his experiences of being captured in Pakistan soon after his aircraft was hit by ground fire. The book is full of interactive accounts with the family members of PoWs.
