Letter from Multan

Inside Pakistani Jails

Well, we got in at Multan last night at 3 am. We visited Sukkur jail yesterday and right after lunch with the Municipal Commissioner at his office where the people met us warmly, we left for Multan at 5pm. It was a long trip by bus, we had dinner at 12am- surprisingly hotels open late and people walked into eat even later than us. The next morning, we left at 10 am for the Central Jail. There are two jails in Multan and we visited the Central Jail. In Sukkur and Karachi , the records had been in English and we saw what we could in the 3-5 odd hours or so that we get to spend in each jail.

In Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore, that was our first day at a jail. The relatives, some of them were quite hopeful of finding someone. Call it wishful thinking or whatever. Over time now, some of us have been talking to them about keeping reality in mind- There are many sides to this case and it was highly unlikely that we would find anyone right in the beginning. As Mr Ghulam Mohd, the coordinator of the trip form the Pakistni side said, " The Pakistani govt had never said they have POWs, it was us, the Indians who had been insisting all along that they were there."

In Kot Lakhpat, we were shown 59 Indian Prisoners but again many were mentally ill, and mostly all of them had already been seen by our High Commission. As we would learn both countries provided consular access to security prisoners, ie people under charges of spying , border crossing etc only after their sentence was completed and they were ready for repatriation. We were told that we were shown all Security prisoners in all jails. We were told that there were no prisoners inside the jails wo were older than 55 years of age and security prisoners or Mentally ill and unable to identify themselves.

Perhaps the jail authorities were telling the truth- that even among the prisoners they did not show us, none were from 1971! When we met Asma Jehangir, she also informed us that in her capacity as Chairperson, HRCP, she had not come across any Indian prisoners or information of Indian Defence prisoners. She said they had searched each cell and met each prisoner.

Then why do we not believe them? Simply because, apart from the evidence, Pakistan( and perhaps other countries too) has a system where prisoners may languish for a time before reaching a Civilian prison. For instance, Jagseer Singh and Mohd Arif who were captured after the Kargil conflict in September, 1999 by Pakistani army were reportedly kept in a place they cannot identify as they were in Solitary confinement and blindfolded through most of the period before they were brought to Rawalpindi jail for consular access. So they were charged with border crossing and kept for a time in an unknown place.

A similar thing could have happened in 1971 to some of the Missing in Action men. Maj Ghosh’s Photograph in TIME magazine is proof he was a prisoner. As for Maj Suri’s letter, the letter says Karachi, not Central Jail, Karachi. SO the possibility is there he was somewhere else. Ashok Suri’s letter begins in a somewhat uncommon way- " Ashok touches they feet to get your benediction" . Looking at his sample from 1970, he starts a the letter in 1970 in a similar way. If he was in Karachi, where was he, if not in the Central jail?

Some of the loopholes we have faced are- first the records are extensive and they take time. Secondly, are the records correct? We realised this in Multan where we had a very sincere Pakistani jail official reading the records to us which were in Urdu. Basically, names got distorted. eg a Baldev in the admission or Entry Register became Billoo in the Transfer register. Similarly many names were outright absurd and likely to have been made up. Third, the question was - were the officers mentioned by Ashok Suri to be with him really in the Civilian prison system?

This is why we have requested for a visit by some relatives to Attock fort. We have also requested that we be allowed to meet some retired Army and Air Force Officers who would have been in a position to interview/interrogate prisoners captured in the 71 war. For what we want is a satisfactory resolution. Where we have answers as to what happened to these men. It is not an impossible task.

Even if some men were left behind in Pakistan, it was another time and another regime. This is a different era and any men , if here, could be sent back as a purely humanitarian issue. General Musharraf has shown great transparency by letting us examine their jail records, this could be a step forwards in resolving this long pending case. A committee to research the details and the evidences and which could reach a satisfactory solution in each case would be perhaps the logical conclusion of the case.


P.S. Tomorrow we go to Sahiwal, then drive to Faislabad after the Jail visit. It is going to be a mentally and physically exhausting trip but it’s worth it if we get some answers and the process of finding out the men comes a step closer to a solution.