Update on trip to Pakistan- Kot Lakhpat jail

When the trip started, the doubts I had were that first , our govt had not planned it properly. We were not called for a meeting till the end and there are many things that the older members could have suggested. We again asked the Def Min for a committee/MIA cell as we feel that many cases could be resolved by ex army and Air Force Officers when they go through the cases. there are a lot of inconsistencies. For instance, the Indian army lists Maj Ashok Suri as killed but his letter from Karachi is the most unexplainable piece of proof and stares you in the face.

If the Indian army and the Pakistan army believe that he died, they need to explain the letter. It is to be remembered that the same Indian army had labelled Mohd Arif and Jagseer Singh as deserters and that Pakistan had them in their custody for 5 years before their relatives learnt that they were in Pakistani custody. Such mistakes happen in wars though and it may be that soldiers may languish under mistaken identities ( ie other names) .

So even if half the cases are resolved by a bilateral committee who go through war records and the evidences ( who may have died but were buried/cremated on the other side of the border), the other half remain. Who were the twenty officers with Maj Suri? What of Maj Ghosh’s photo in Time magazine in a Pakistani prisoner of war camp? ALl this needs to be explained.

On the 2nd of June, we were shown 59 prisoners in Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore. Of these, 53 had already been seen by the Indian High Commission . Usually , many prisoners come here once their sentence is over. So there may be more Indian prisoners who are not in Kot Lakhpat or other such jails. The Jail Superintendent also told us that we could see the jail records but for that we would need 3-4 days to go through records of 1972 to 1978. So it was decided to arrange for a person who could do that.

As it turns out, in 14 days, we visit 10 jails or so , which is going to be tough physically on the 68 year old diabetic Nirmal Kaur, w/o Subedar Assa Singh, and Dalip Singh Rathod, b/o Capt KS Rathod and the other ladies- Mrs kamlesh Jain, Mrs Jasbir Kaur. It is already turning out to be tough mentally as they realise that the 14 day trip is short- we cannot visit all jails , and examining records itself is a mammoth task - one that perhaps the Pakistan Human Rights Commisssion can do or as suggested , a committee of experts- ex army and Air Force Officers plus an NGO can do over time.

And visiting Attock - we have asked that just the families can be taken by the Pakistanis for we are not an official delegation but a purely humanitarian one- a delegation searching for it’s loved ones- 35 years is a long time but we cannot give up the search without knowing what happened.

We again requested the Pakistani authorities to show us people who were 55 years and older and who had not been shown to the High Commission. For there was no purpose in our coming here to see people who had been seen by our high commission already. We had just come to appeal to the Pakistanis , so similar to us in every way, so hospitable specially here in Punjab, that if the present govt resolved the case, it would be a big step forwards and one for which everyone in India would be grateful. After all, these were soldiers of India who had already served the longest sentences possible- 35 years.

Kot Lakhpat had a Surjit Singh, whose mention has come before in the papers, who is an ex BSF person but a security prisoner now- here since 25 years. He along with the others were very happy to see an Indian delegation after so long and it was touching to see him remember his home. 25 years, We asked ourselves, Is that not a long enough sentence even for a security prisoner? Others were there too- they told us they had not seen any army or Air force persons there in their stay.


We met Asma Jehangir - a dynamic woman who was clearly very focussed, determined- a great personality- she felt that though some of the later reports of people seeing the men could be false- as the Pakistan HRCP had never come across any mention of anyone having seen the 54- she felt that Maj Suri s letter could not be explained away and one must continue to search for the truth.

So we head to Karachi with hope - that is where Ashok Suri had written his letter. With hope of meeting the Presidnet of Pakistan and with hope of going to Attock too. For that is what the world runs on - Hope. and the will to continue to unearth the truth.