Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Kashmir Singh, who returned to India recently after spending 35 years in Pakistan jails, on Saturday went back on his statement made on Friday that he was an Indian spy.
Singh said over the telephone that the media had distorted his statement made at a press conference in Chandigarh on Friday on his working for the Government in the 1970s. At the meet-the-press programme in Chandigarh, he had admitted to having worked as a spy and also blamed the Government agencies for not having looked after his family after his arrest in Pakistan. But on Saturday, he said his statement was distorted. Singh declined to give any details of his working for the Government. “I did not give the statement of my being a spy,” he said, answering a question, he declined that he was retracting his statement under pressure. “There was no pressure on me to withdraw the statement,” he said.
His childhood friend Gurmit Chand Bhardwaj, a former joint director of News in All India Radio (AIR), said in Chandigarh that Singh maintains he worked for the Government. Bhardwaj also said that Pakistan Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney, who had played a key role in Singh’s release, also rang up and talked to Singh on Saturday seeking clarifications on his statement.
Singh was stated to have worked for the Army and for the Punjab Police as a constable.
