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

The entire 15 Punjab and the families related have been shaken to the core and the veneer of normalcy should fool no one.I was barely 9 and the writer of this article was a sweet child I used to play with in Dhaula Kuan Part II.As a Waraich and as an army officer`s daughter the search continues ....Its a personal battle for us and the seach will go on.I am 44 now and i know that this search will carry on till I live.The memory and the seach for my dearest brother will be carried on by my 2 daughters .I had the opportunity to visit Pakistan in 1983 and the main aim was to get some clue,anything,but nothing came out.The search led me back full circle to where it had started.The childhood playmates...Simmi and Nitu.I could not believe my eyes when I read the article.I have been trying to get in touch with the family because the official mails from the battalion addressed to Mrs Sharanjit Pal Singh waraich get sent care of Col Dr.GPS Waraich retd.,my father.Please get in touch C/O Himalaya Public School GT Road Byepass Karnal Haryana:132001,Tel:9354100410.....eagerly awaiting....

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=63952

Pak govt report says over 180 Indians in its jails



RAUF KLASRA


Posted online: Thursday, February 03, 2005 at 0208 hours IST



ISLAMABAD, FEBRUARY 2: As many as 182 Indian prisoners, including five
women, have been languishing in Pakistani jails on `unknown charges` since
1971, with many suffering from loss of memory, an official report disclosed.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao will present the classified
report in the Senate on Wednesday. This is for the first time a Pakistani
government has officially recorded data of Indian prisoners, many of whom
entered mistakenly into its territory. A copy obtained by The News reveals
that out of 182 prisoners, 30 are Muslims and a few are Christians. Rest are
either Hindus or Sikhs.


The report is silent about whether the prisoners were ever produced before
any Pakistani courts and formally charge sheeted or not. An official said
the report suggests the detainees were never produced before any court. It
also fails to explain what charges were framed against the prisoners and the
arrangements were made with India to help their release. Similarly, the
report does not give details whether the government had any plan to release
them if it had no sound cases against them as a gesture of goodwill with
India. The report has also not given the names of jails where they have been
kept.
However, the report says the government had given Indian consular access to
50 Indian prisoners. The report is also silent about their place of birth,
which could have helped their relatives to identify them. A number of the
unfortunate prisoners, according to the sources in the ministry, have lost
their memory and are suffering from depression and psychiatric problems.
India had handed over a list of its 54 citizens believed to be in Pakistani
jails. The exchange of list was also made part of 98 confidence building
measures that India exchanged with Pakistan. The Pakistan government had tri
ed to find out information about those 54 Indians but could not do it.
The names and particulars of prisoners as recorded by the Pakistan Interior
Ministry
Mohammad Sadiq alias Wela s/o Wali Mohammad, Ibrahim Ghulam s/o Ghulam
Hussain, Mohammad Usman s/o Mohammad Amin, Waljis s/o Rai Mal, Mohammad Amin
s/o Haji Mohammad, Mohammad Javed Hussain s/o Mohammad Gulzar Hussain, Gopal
Bhagat s/o Heman Bagat, Mehan Khan so Adat Khan, Maya daughter of Wall
Singh, Qasim s/o Mohamamd, Liaqat Khan so Qurdat Khan, Manoranjan alias
Mohammad Imran so Widya Sagar, Hira Lal s/o Dalir Singh, Munawar Lal s/o of
Das Ram, Hadeep Singh so Charan Singh, Talal Raj s/o Punjab Raj, Ameerjeet
Singh s/o Mohinder Pall, Kernail Singh s/o Kartar Singh, Narmal Singh s/o
Sonara Singh, Sohan Singh so Sinjgara Singh, Rajeev Singh S/O Jashveender
Singh, Satesh Kumar s/o Shery Mohar Lal, Rakesh Kumar s/o Jeet Ram, Sirbjeet
Singh s/o Dilbagh Singh, Pershutum Lal s/o Charan Das, Jaspal Singh s/o
Sardar Chaman Singh, Sohan Singh s/o Ameerjeet Singh, Jaspal Singh s/o Suran
Singh, Jernel Singh so Suran Singh, Charhanjeet Singh so Balvaher Singh,
Mehender Singh s/o Darshan Singh, Perdeep Kumar so Harbans Lal, Gagan Deep
Singh so Dersaj, Haresh Kumar s/o Mangoram, Baljeet Singh so Taram Singh,
arseel Lal s/o Boota Lal, Karnel Singh s/o Purdeep Singh, Jamspal Singh s/o
Sevram Singh, Otar Singh s/o of Mangha Singh, Shahra Singh s/o Sone Singh,
Davinder Singh so Lakhvinder Singh, Daveinder Singh s/o Lakhvinder Singh,
Ilyas s/o Badiu, Ram Kumar s/o of Amir Kumar, Shahidul Islam s/o Abdul Al
Hassan, Wonyou so Abdul Rehman, Umer Farooq s/o Karim Din, Ashok Kumar s/o
of Soran Das, Boota Ram so Dharam Chand, Gopal Das s/o Baharia Lal,
Gurbukush Ram s/o of Amer Nath, Kuldeep Kumar s/o Nanak Chand, Kaldeep Singh
s/o Chanda Singh, Mana Masih so Pala Masih, Manga Ram s/o Kaqtar Ram, Pervez
Ahmed Masood s/o Mohamamd Yousaf Masoodi, Ram Parkash s/o of Dewan Chand;
Shahbuddin Mir s/o Sirajuddin Mir, Surjeet Singh s/o Sucha Singh, Karpal
Singh s/o Dwas Singh, Kashmir Singh s/o Sansar Singh, Manjeet Singh s/o
Solkehea Singh, Abdul Nasir so Abdul Razaak, Ataf Hussain s/o Ghulam
Hussain, Ameerjeet Singh Solekehea Singh, Amjad Khan so Bazaid Khan, Babu
Ram s/o Kaiser Chand, Behram s/o unknown, Bharat Boshan s/o Sat Poul, Chnna
Singh s/o of Ujagar Singh, Chanranjeet Singh Ins Raj Singh, Charan Singh s/o
Hamen Singh, Chitran Das s/o Saman Dad, Dave Das s/o Pooran Das, Daveinder
Singh s/o Auter Singh, Dubinder Singh s/o Naitar Singh, Ganga Ram so Ram
Chander, Golu s/o Mehru, Gourpreet Singh s/o Manjeet Singh, Gula Ram so
Beeka Ram, Gurumail Singh s/o Sawaran, Hakim Singh so Janab Singh, Hardeep
Singh so Rolda Singh, Haribhoran Singh s/o Guru Pangi Singh, Harbans Lal s/o
Kohlu Ram, Jagtar Singh s/o Ghore Bachan, Jasvant Singh s/o Narovander
Singh, Jatinder Kunar s/o Sohan Lal, Journeil Singh s/o Banta Singh, Kala
Singh so Sunder singh, Kala Singh s/o Sundar Singh, Kuldeep Singh s/o Sadhu
Singh, Kalveer Singh s/o Chanan Singh, Kalvinder Singh so Hervent Singh,
Kamal Jeet Singh Jgir Singh, Karamat Rahi Masih s/o Saith Shama Masih,
Khurshid Ahmed s/o Abdul Ahad, Lukvinder Singh s/o Balbir Singh, Lukhvinder
Singh so Kartar Singh, Lal Chand s/o Tarsem Lal, Mahel Singh so Pur Singh;
Majender Singh s/o Lal Singh, Makhen Singh s/o Chanan Singh, Malkeet Singh
s/o Fata Singh, Manjeet Singh s/o Kabal Singh, Mir Mohammad so Haji Matloob,
Mohan Lal s/o Mangi Lal, Mst Fatima Bibi wife of Ramzan Khan, Mst Matii
daughter of Sita Ram, Ms Teena Peka Wife of Rajesh, Mohammad Ali s/o Sarmoj
Ali, Mohammad Irshad so Mohammad Akbar, Mohamamd Ashraf s/o Abdul Rashid,
Mohammad Hassan so Mohammad Riaz, Mohammad Kamal s/o Mohammad Fazal,
Mohammad Muslim Din s/o Abdul Aziz, Mohammad Riasat s/o Abdul Aziz, Naseem
Paul s/o Bhopal, Navinder Pal s/o Stapal, Nazarul Islam s/o Phool Mian,
Nishan Sinh s/o Piyara Singh, Parkash so Gana, Peeru Dival s/o Badu Lal,
Pervaiz s/o Abdul Jabar, Pretum Singh s/o Bakhshu Lal, Radhey Sham s/o Bansi
Lal, Rahat s/o Abdul Hai, Ram Das s/o Frash Chand Das, Ram Paul, s/o Ram
Dari, Ramu Ram s/o Shame Ram, Rashi Paul so ShahiPaul, Sheikh Mohammad s/o
Amir Mohammad, Sheikh Mansoor Ali so Sh Anwar Ali, Surjeet Singh s/o Rolda;
Singh, Sukhveer Singh s/o Nadra Singh, Sukhvender Singh s/o Gurmukh Singh,
Suraj Paul s/o Jeet Ram, SURESH Kumar s/o Valati Ram, Surender Paul s/o
Rathis Ram, Swaran Lal Khotra s/o Shive Ram, Tajinder Kumar s/o Ram Singh,
one prisoner does not know his name even, Veegana so Ram Bhai, Vijay Kumar
so Krishan Chand, Warnu SO Shosha, Balvinder s/o Bachari Singh, Bashir
Ahmed, so Azmatulah, BJ Singh s/o Parkash, David Masih, s/o Pitras Mashi,
Kaka Ram s/o Baloch Ram, Manga Sheikh s/o Mohammad Sharif, Mst Naeema
Shabnam daughter of Abdul Mian, Mohammad Afzal so Nazar Mohammad, Mohammad
Ashraf s/o Mir Ullah, Abdul Aziz s/o Muhammad Din, Mohammad Irshad s/o Lal
Hussain, Mohammad Shafi s/o Piswal, Naseeb Chand s/o Sunder Das, Nazir Ahmad
s/o Abdul Rashid, Omparkash s/o Dittu Ram, Parkash Chand s/o Dhana Ram,
Parkash s/o Gula Budho Ram, Rehmat Din s/o Illam Din, Shambu Nath s/o Kunjan
Chand, Suni Masih s/o Fazal Masih, Syed Rafique s/o Syed Bashir Ahmed,
Mohamamd Razzak s/o Naik Mohammad, Liaqat Ali s/o Sain Mohammad, Mukhtar
Ahmed s/o Allam Din and Abdul Rahid s/o Tana.

Dr Waraich,
Suggestions of writing appeal for information through Pakistan`s urdu press deserves merit. Many Pakistani soldiers of 24th Panjab from 1971 must be alive and few of them may still remember if Major Waraich survived his capture to whom he was handed over.
These people can be motivated to provide verifiable information by some sort of monetary award.

Wishing you all the best in your search.

Re: FV, I did interact once with Ansar Burney on the internet and he said to send him documents relating to the prisoners- photos and all. As for the comments by some that they have not heard of these prisoners, it is because they are often kept under assumed names and apart from others, specially after Maj Suri`s letter got out in 1975. Why will the government give access to Ansar Burney? Who is he? Asma Jehangir has better credentials and has offered to help too. However, I do not have her contact numbers or ID.

Re: India has nto got very far-not even an admission from the Pakistan govt that it holds these men. The feeling is if they release any survivors it will be only through some means where the blame does not fall on them- they cannot release them as POWs. An Indian team had visited Multan jail in 1983 on the invitation of the pakistanis to try to identify these men. The team had gone with high hopes as Narasimha Rao had told them,`` Go, get your men in whatever state they are.`` However, relations deteriorated as they are wont to between India and Pak by the time they reached and they were not shown all the prisoners. Maybe this could be done again again, but involving the Pakistan human rights commission too and the two(Relatives of missing defence personnel and Pak Human Rights Commission) could work together before going to pakistan to identify the men.

``There are whispers and rumours, and places like Sheikhupura and Lyallpur seem to hold the keys to terrible secrets.``
Lyallpur, now called Faisalabad can`t hold any secrets. Surprisingly, unlike most cities in Pakistan there is no army presence in Faisalabad.

This is one of the most difficult topics to reconcile with when discussing peace and amity between India and Pakistan.

Here are a few facts:-

a) There are absolutely no reports or cases of Pakistani soldiers being held back in India, other than the recorded cases which are dealt with under the Geneva Convention. As on date, the Pakistani Government does not have any demands open on mising Pakistani soldiers.

b) During the Agra meet, President General Musharaf said on television something to the effect that ``I am a soldier, I am not mad, why would I keep Indian POWs/soldiers in captivity for decades``? A group of Indian families then visited Pakistan, were taken to a few jails, and then brought back. Pakistan continued to claim that it had no Indian soldiers in its custody.

And now, August 2004, suddenly the Pakistanis ``discover`` that two Indian soldiers were with them in Rawalpindi Jail Barrack No. 4 or 8, all along. And these soldiers are then exchanged.

c) Expecting any sort of investigative skills from most of the English language Pakistani media seems to be a futile pursuit. However, there is some hope from the Urdu media, which does seem to have a better weather eye out and an ear to the ground.

There are whispers and rumours, and places like Sheikhupura and Lyallpur seem to hold the keys to terrible secrets. But what are these secrets and truths?

Waraich Sahib, thank you for your article. I would suggest that you try to get this article published, also, in the Urdu Press in Pakistan.

#9 by dost-mittar

I think there is no need to bring pak-india into this or put blame on anybody. Pak-media can be your best friend, if you want to get resolution.

FV has shot down my proposal to contact Ansar Burney for personal reasons. He is worth a try again. FV does not know Pakistan at all. Ansar Burney never reads his emails his clerks do. In this matter personal phone calls and persistency is the name of the game. He may not help due to the army involvement but he certainly can point to the people who can for money.
There are two Pakistan like many third world countries and people would do a lot for the money.
First we need to hear from Waraich as to how far he wants go with it and what has been done by the Indian govt on official and on non official levels. India maintains some very good ties in Pakistan outside of govt. channels, and if India has not been able to make much headway outside of the govt. then this matter may not have much to go with.

This is really sad and tragic. And I fully agree with kaurasach. This is another example of the bankruptcy of Indian leaders - returning 93k pows without insisting on getting back their own.
And where is the much praised freedom of Pakistani media? Why is the Pakistani media completely silent on this issue, except occasionally mouthing the official spokesmen that there are no such prisoners in Pakistan? This should be treated as a human rights issue rather than an India-Pak issue.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

#6 by anil:

I am certainly not well-connected in Pakistan; I do not know any highly-placed official, forget anyone at the ministerial level.

The only people who know me are a few friends, some Chowkies, and a few who read me at TFT.

Re. taking up the matter directly, I do hope you realise that we are talking about prisoners of war who have been there for over three decades now. The families had taken a petition to Pakistan several years ago, but it had to be routed through our government. We are dealing with issues of exchange of prisoners, political ramifications...these are too complicated for anyone to handle at the individual level. (Please read my article `1971-a forgotten story` on Chowk; I have spoken about these barriers.)

Meanwhile, Dr. Waraich can always contact me.

Farzana Versey (#5):

Obviously you are more connected and known in Paksitan than the families of these people, why don`t you take up their cause directly with the Pakistani officials through TFT or other connections that you have.

Anil

Dr. Waraich:

No one can express the true feelings of such suffering as one directly affected by it.

I happen to have met some of the people you mentioned and have been writing about this case since the early 90s (one of which has been published on this forum).Dr. Suri and Major Ghosh`s brother had provided me with those letters and other evidence. I had listed out what the various prime ministers did NOT do. Eduardo Faleiro, who was in the MEA, made a bit of a noise for public consumption but nothing happened.

A while ago, the Hindustan Times had started some small movement to pressurise the Pak government; I wrote to them saying that I would like to help them with all the information I had. No reply. And what have they done subsequently?

I wrote to the Ansar Burney Trust. No reply. This issue agitates me, and I have nothing to do with it personally except as a citizen of India. I can well imagine what you must be going through.

You must have even more material on and knowledge of the subject than I do. Even so, should you need to discuss anything on the matter or need any help to push it in any way I can, do write to me at farzanavee@chowk.com.

And keep the hope alive, please.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Rakapo$h

Post#1

Quote:

``Instead of exchanging singers and musicians and other trade stuff, we should both wipe the slate clean and return whatever POWs we have from both sides . ``

I do not know if India really has been accused of holding POWs till now.

As to Pakistan or any other country for that matter, admitting after so many years would be PR disaster, for starters, in political terms. Something which most of the govts would shy away from.

Even when a head of govt/state or let us say Mr Mushrraf is serious or is interested in resolving this matter, problem will rise in the form of national interests. Be it real and/or perceived interests. And once that (bogey of national interests) crop up, it is very difficult for majority of the govts/heads of states/govts to do what should be done or what they would like to do, in circumstances like these. Sure there always could be exception/s who can rise above ..........And perhaps, that is where faith in `hope` keeps on going stronger or continue. Especially by the affected party/ies

“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.”

Yet another example of cruel results of unnecessary wars between the two countries.

I am kind of surprised at this claim though. The Karachi Jail at time was full of political prisoners in the ZAB era. I met lots of people in the late 70s and early 80s who were in Jail at that time. Some of them were Sindhi nationalist and communists who generally were more sympathetic to India and Indians. I have never heard from anybody that they met some Indian prisoners at Karachi jail.
Anyway, I think this should really be a simple matter to investigate and I am surprised that nobody has taken this route.
In Karachi, there is an organization called Ansar Burney trust and they work with prisoners a lot. Ansar Burney is a social worker and I can’t vouch for his integrity but for money he will probably get this information out easily even when the Pakistan army, or some other parties are not willing to divulge this information.

www.ansarburney.org

Contact him and if possible offer him some money and in the most likely scenario, he will at least be able to confirm whether Indian prisoners were in Karachi at that time or not.
Ansar burney himself used to be in prison so often in his younger days that he may himself be able to confirm or deny that.