Hope for Indian POWs in Pak jails

In a letter to Paul, HRCP had asked for necessary documents of international evidence as well as the evidence from Pakistani media that the POWs of 1965 and 1971 wars are still detained in Pakistani jails.

As per the Simla Agreement, India had released all the 93,000 Prisoners of War of Pakistan.

Lamenting that in the past 53 years the relationship between the two countries had remained at a boiling point, Brig Hamid said people were paying a heavy price for this as they were denied the basic facilities.

After induction of weapons of mass destruction, South Asia has become the most dangerous part of the world, he said and called upon Indians and Pakistanis to spread the message of peace and tolerance in the sub-continent.

“Unless the two countries resolve their problems peacefully our people will continue to suffer the pain of poverty and ignorance”, he added.

Remarking that Indian allocation for defence was also extremely high as compared to Pakistan’s 80 per cent of the total budget, Brig Hamid said that building an “unnecessarily large and frightening arsenal of most sophisticated and deadly weapons was not in the interest of the people of both the countries”.

He also promised to communicate with ex-chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Asma Jahangir for necessary follow-up for the relase of POWs.

The family members of some POWs had submitted a memorandum in Delhi for intervention when she came to India a few months ago and she had assured to do the needful if provided with authentic evidence, he said.