India, Pak exchange prisoners

ISLAMABAD/AMRITSAR, MARCH 22: For 54-year-old Ashok Kumar, his dream came true on Monday when he and his three children crossed into Indi...

ISLAMABAD/AMRITSAR, MARCH 22: For 54-year-old Ashok Kumar, his dream came true on Monday when he and his three children crossed into India at the Wagha border after spending over three years in Pakistani jails.

Kumar was part of a larger group of 57 civilian prisoners exchanged on Monday 8211; India sent back 43, Pakistan 14 8211; following talks between Prime Ministers Atal Behari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif in Lahore in February.Kumar8217;s case was highlighted by The Indian Express in February 1998 when he was being kept in a small, dank cell in the Peshawar Central Jail, dreaming of the day he would return home in Sonepat, Punjab, where a wife awaited her family8217;s release in a case that had dragged over two and a half years.Kumar was detained by Pakistani authorities for entering the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the strip of land that divides the Frontier province from the Afghan border town of Torkham. Although he was carrying valid travel documents for himself and his family, Kumar was unaware that heneeded special permission to enter the Tribal Areas.

Kumar8217;s condition was pitiful. An illiterate man, Ashok Kumar was heading to Afghanistan with his children after he quarrelled with his wife in 1995. A S Yousufi, a Peshawar-based newspaper reporter recalls: quot;When I asked him why he chose Afghanistan over any town in his own sprawling country, Kumar broke down weeping and cursed his folly.quot;

Kumar now has difficulty walking and his children are malnourished, since prison food is bad and living conditions very tough. In a cell with hardened prisoners, Kumar had to listen to insults and taunts. Kumar believed that he would die in Peshawar. Since the authorities had seized his passport, he could not contact the Indian High Commission for redressal. His only concern was whether he would be cremated or buried in an unmarked grave like other prisoners. quot;Whether my children will ever be able to see India is another question that worries me,quot; he said in an interview in 1998.

For Ashok Kumar and his children, anew life has began. quot;Tell Ashok Kumar that no progress has been made in talks between India and Pakistan,quot; quipped one Islamabad reporter, quot;and he will tell you that you are mad.quot;

Others too have similar stories. The three-year ordeal of Illiya and Arkilla Boomiya who belong to Andhra Pardesh has also finally ended.