The Forgotten 54 - When will the War Finish for Them?

I had to fill up a form yesterday. It asked for my father’s details among which was a column asking whether alive or deceased. Yet again I filled in deceased. I can and have carried on with my life all these years as have other relatives of the 54 missing defence personnel (original list was of 40)from the 1971 war. It has been 32 years and a few months. “A long time” as most people say shaking their heads and dismiss it from their minds. A time during which parents died, wives grew old waiting, a few wives remarried but the question of whether the 54 were alive remained in their minds, brothers and sisters grew old, children grew up and got married, grandchildren grew up not missing the grandfather as they had never known him. A time in which people grow old and die, especially in prison, everyone said. “Practically, it’s highly unlikely that anyone would be alive!” “They are treated abominably, tortured, even if someone were to survive the illnesses (tuberculosis, infections etc), there is a strong possibility they would have slipped into a world of their own, become mentally imbalanced as it were!” And so life carries on. One has enough on one’s mind as it is. Switch on the television or sit down with the morning newspaper and the headlines shriek at you, “ Murder! Mayhem! Rape! Terrorists! And on and on.”

What do a mere 54 men mean? Anyway, they are most likely dead. Even if they aren’t, Pakistan would never send them back now. That would be admitting that they kept them 32 years after the war they fought in finished. So why fight the impossible! By some improbable chance if they are sent back, who knows what they’ll be like- disoriented, demented perhaps; brainwashed perhaps? They’ll be followed by RAW for months to see if they are upto something here, some proffer. As Dr Manette in Charles Dicken’s “A Tale of Two Cities” came back from the Bastille after 17 years as a mere shadow of himself and had to be nursed for months before returning to some semblance of a human being.

We talk of peace and improving ties yet we are almost reluctant to broach the issue of missing defence personnel. Why is it that we place such little value on human life? Perhaps there is just so much to do, so many practicalities to consider that 40-50 men in jail for the last 32 years means little to us! Maybe the Indian government is making efforts but if they haven’t borne fruit in the past 32 years, it is unlikely they will now.

MAJ SPS WARAICH AND MAJOR KJS SANDHU

Major Sharanjitpal Singh Waraich’s name is number one on the list of 54 POW from the 1971 war. He was born in 1938. He was the oldest of four surviving brothers born to Gurdeep Singh and Harbans Kaur, who belonged to an erstwhile family of landlords form Gujranwala, Pakistan. His father was serving in the Punjab Police. He and Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu were good friends. They were the daredevils of the regiment, 15 Punjab, also known as Patiala regiment, the former regiment of the Maharaja of Patiala, Yadavindra Singh. They were the first to volunteer for forays into the enemy territory whenever required.

Sharanjit’s grandfather ‘s grandfather, at the time in Pakistan had joined the Indian army as Subedar and was part of the raising of 24 Punjab. Their family had converted in the 1700s to Sikhism. His son and grandson later served in the same battalion. His grandson, Sharanjit’s granfather had served with the battalion in the first world war in Turkey and was taken Prisoner of war along with the entire regiment. They were there for 3 years where they worked and whatever they earned was provided to a family where the men were out fighting the war elsewhere. The family gave them food and looked after them. He learnt photography and other arts there along with reading and writing. Ironically it was the same battalion, 24 Punjab, which went to Pakistan when the Indian armies were divided along with the country in 1947, that raided Husainiwala on 3rd December 1971 and caught 15 Punjab on the Indian side unaware capturing the two officers. The same 24 Punjab that three generations of Major Waraich’s forefathers had served in that captured him!


SOME OF THE EVIDENCE RELATING TO THEIR PRESENCE IN pAKISTANI JAILS
1). In a book published in 1980 titled “Bhutto- Trial and Execution” written by Victoria Schofield, a senior BBC London reporter, covering the period 1978 when Bhutto was detained in Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore. Page No. 59 reads: ‘‘(Bhutto’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 Bhutto’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.”

2). 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 Karachi jail on August 13th 1975 dated June 14/15/16th 1975 stating that their were 20 other officers with him there.

3). Mohanlal Bhaskar, who was in a jail between 1968 and 1974 and repatriated on 09.12.1974 wrote a book ( Main Pakistan Mein Bharat ka Jasoos tha) and gave a signed affidavit stating that in Fort of Attock, A Pakistani Major Ayaj Ahmed Sipra (imprisoned for conspiring against Bhutto) spoke of his befriending a Gill of the Indian Air Force and a Captain Singh of the Indian Army as well as mentioning that there were around 40 Pows of the 1965 and 1971 wars in that jail who had no chances of release.

There is other evidence, a photo in Time magazine of Maj Ghosh in a Pakistani jail published on 27th dec 1971, men who have returned form Pakistan having seen these men. These men if still surviving have little time left for niceties now. They need to be brought home in whatever state they are. Even if there were human rights violations, releasing these men would send a gesture of goodwill and peace. The two governments could in a way make amends for the violations of past regimes. What happened is past, releasing these men could be the harbinger of a new beginning.

Surely, not releasing them because of the fear of international condemnation could be turned into a celebration by admitting that mistakes were made in the past by both countries. It is most likely that these men were kept as spies and not POWs. If any are surviving they could be sent back as such. I went to the Wagah border for the candlelight vigil held on 15th august this year. The vigil is held for peace. I just wonder when the war will finish for these men. When will they return home?