Bodies of evidence

For relatives of missing defence personnel and prisoners of war of 1965 and 1971, hope floats again. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan HRCP last week agreed to take up the issue of the 54 Indian PoWs in Pakistan.

In a letter to the Missing Defence Personnel Relatives Association, headed by Rajkot-based advocate M.K. Paul, HRCPacirc;euro;trade;s coordinator Brigadier Rao Abid Hamid has asked for the necessary documents and evidence.

acirc;euro;tilde;acirc;euro;tilde;This material could be useful in our efforts to get them released,acirc;euro;trade;acirc;euro;trade; Hamid stated.The association has got some more encouragement with senior rights activist, Asma Jahangir, who also wants documentary evidence of Indian PoWs from the Association.

The association, which is patronised by Lt Gen J.S. Aurora, is banking on evidence it has painstakingly gathered over the years. This includes newspaper clippings from Pakistanacirc;euro;trade;s Sunday Observer, book extracts, photographs from Time magazine showing Indian Prisoners of War and eyewitness accounts of repatriated POWs.

According to M.K. Paul, who has been spearheading the campaign to get PoWs released, a book written by Victoria Schofield, senior BBC London reporter called Bhutto Trial and Execution, lists the conditions under which Bhutto lived in jail.

Reads page No. 59: acirc;euro;tilde;acirc;euro;tilde;Bhuttoacirc;euro;trade;s cell separated from a barrack area by a 10 foot high wall, did not prevent him from hearing horrific shrieks and screams at night from the other side of the wall.

One of Bhuttoacirc;euro;trade;s lawyers made enquiries amongst the jail staff and ascertained that they were in fact Indian Prisoners of War who had been rendered delinquent and mental during the course of the 1971 war.

When the time came to exchange the prisoners, the Indian Government would not accept these lunatics, who had no recollection of their place of origin, and so they were retained as prisoners to eke out their existence in Kot Lakhpat.

Bhutto discovering the precise temperament of the inmates, wrote to his lawyer which were released to the press requesting that they be moved.

Obviously the authorities would not accept that Bhuttoacirc;euro;trade;s sleep was being disturbed on purpose, but Bhutto did not forget the sleepless nights he spent and referred often to the lunatics in other letters of complaint8230;acirc;euro;trade;acirc;euro;trade;

President of the Missing Defence Personnel Relativesacirc;euro;trade; Association, Dr R.S. Suri, father of Major Ashok Suri who has been acirc;euro;tilde;missing in actionacirc;euro;trade; since 1971, feels that some of the prisoners could still be alive.

A great deal of their hope is pinned on eyewitness accounts of repariated prisoners who saw others in Pakistan jails.

Sample this:
The name of Major Ashok Suri was mentioned on January 6 and 7, 1972 in Punjabi Darbar programme of Lahore. His father also received letters from a Pakistan jail.
Mohanlal Bhaskar, who was in a jail between 1968 and 1974 as well as Rooplal Saharia, who was jailed for 27 years from 1974 to 2000, have stated that there were Indian PoWs in Pakistan jails.
Mukhatyar Singh, who was repatriated from Pakistan on July 5, 1988, says Captain Giriraj Singh is still lodged in Kot Lakhapat jail. Singh also reportedly saw Captain Kamal Bakshi in Multan jail around 1983. He says Bakshi could be either in Multan jail or Bhawalpur jail.
Mukhtayar Singh also recalls seeing Major Ashok Suri in Kot Lakhpat Jail.
Flight Lt. V.V. Tambeyacirc;euro;trade;s name was published in the Sunday Observer on July 5, 1971. Daljit Singh, repatriated on March 4, 1988, said he had seen Flight Lt. Tambey at the Lahore interrogation centre in February 1978.
The name of flying officer Sudhir Tyagi, whose plane was shot down near Peshwar on December 4, 1971, was announced over Pakistan Radio the next day.
Time magazine dated December 24, 1972, carried a photograph of Indian prisoners behind bars. The photograph turned out to be that of Major A.K. Ghosh, who did not return with the rest of the POWs.
Natha Ram, repatriated on March 24, 1988, had seen Capt. Kalyan Singh Rathore at Rawalpindi interrogation centre in November 1983.
Pakistanacirc;euro;trade;s Sunday Observer newspaper dated December 5, 1971 had published a news item acirc;euro;tilde;PAF Pakistan Air Force bags 47 IAF Planes, 5 pilots arrested alive.acirc;euro;trade; The pilots havenacirc;euro;trade;t been released till this date.