33 Years and Counting

Warraich stop torturing yourself and do something.

Get yourself a canadian or australian passport, avoid revealing your place of birth and go to Pakistan yourself. You have a punjabi muslim name and can probably speak passable urdu and punjabi, though I am sure english will open more doors for you in Pakistan. Go there yourself and take help from fellow chowkies and human rights activists. track your father or any one of the other 54 you think are their. If they are they wil be able to tell you about the rest.

This is what i would do if I thought my father was locked up in a prison in Pakistan.

this is by seemi warraich right? sorry to sound so jingoist -- and this probably applies more to the bear of chowk, shri veeresh jee (who the last time this article was posted made it out that pakistan was not being nice to india in this matter) -- but the fact is that there are according to official figures over 600 pakistanis in indian jails as well -- and the number for india is not 54 but 576 --

This is from Dawn, August 27, 2005


Pakistan, India urged to take steps for prisoners’ release


By Our Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: The Senate standing committee on foreign affairs on Friday urged both Islamabad and New Delhi to take adequate measures for unconditional and immediate release of Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails and Indians in Pakistani prisons.

It also demanded consular access to the Pakistani prisoners in India.

The committee was informed that the issue of Pakistani and Indian prisoners in each other’s countries had been included in the agenda of talks between their interior, secretaries scheduled for Aug 28 in New Delhi.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told the committee led by Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed that the interior secretary had been directed to take up the issue with his Indian counterpart and India had agreed to discuss it.

The foreign secretary said there were 611 Pakistanis in Indian jails, including 52 fishermen.

He said the national status of 173 of the prisoners had been confirmed after verification while the identification of 178 was in process.

He said the government had been trying to get consular access to 208 Pakistani prisoners but it was awaiting response from the Indian side.

He said there were 576 Indians in Pakistani jails.

He said the progress made on the issue in the talks would be discussed in the meeting of foreign secretaries of both the countries in Islamabad next week with progress on other confidence-building measures during the past year.

He said relations between the two countries had been improving gradually and he hoped that the issue of prisoners would become a part of confidence-building measures between them.

The secretary said verification of the identities of the prisoners in Indian jails was a difficult process because relatives of those without documents were reluctant to provide information about them.

He said the government had decided to simplify the procedure of identification so that the prisoners without proper documents could be released as early as possible.

The official said all the embassies had been directed to take effective measures to help Pakistanis in case of any difficulty and seek consular access to get details of the prisoners.

Riaz Khan said many Pakistanis went abroad without documents because of various reasons, including economic conditions, causing difficulties for the country and its embassies.

Senator Mushahid Hussain said the Indian high commissioner had told him that New Delhi was ready to release the Pakistani prisoners whose identification had been confirmed.

The secretary said the Foreign Office had not received any such offer from the Indian government, but assured the committee that if such an offer was received officially, the government would be ready to take measures for the release of those prisoners.

Minister of State for Interior Dr Shahzad Wasim said that in many cases the verification process for prisoners in India was delayed due to incomplete addresses.

He said the release of fishermen from Indian jails would be on top of the agenda in the interior secretaries’ talks.

Being unaware of the facts of long-term incarceration of prisoners of war in India and Pakistan, I agree that prisoners must be released after cessation of hostilities. Why must they languish and await death in foreign custody is beyond me. Incidently, I was reading an article titled: ``Fifty-four Years in Jail without Trial: the Plight of Prison Inmates in India`` by Parwini Zora (WSWS, 26 August 2005). I quote:

`` Machang Lalung, aged 77, was released from incarceration last month in the northeast Indian state of Assam after spending more than half a century behind bars awaiting trial. Lalung had been arrested at his home village of Silsang in 1951 under Section 326 of the Indian Penal Code for ``causing grievous harm``. According to civil rights groups that have investigated the case, there was no substantive evidence to support the charges against him.

``According to a Scotsman.com news report, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken up the cases of four other men awaiting trial in Assam: Khalilur rahman has been in custody for 35 years, Anil Kumar Burman for 33 years, and Sonamani Deb for 32 years, while parbati Mallik has been detained in a psychiatric unit for 32 years.

``Though these individual cases have noiw gained media attention, the phenomenon of accused persons having to endure unconsionable delays awaiting trial is the norm in Indian Justice sysyem. In 2002, some three quarters of all persons held in Indian prisons had not been sentenced to jail, but were ``under trial``--that is awaiting trial.

``The largest number of under-trial or remand prisoners is to be found in the jails of Uttar Pardesh, Manipur, and Meghalaya, where more than 90 percent of the prison population have reportedly not faced trial.

I avoid the grievous controversy that patently goes on between the zealots on both sides. Pakistani justice system is equally unjust. Many women who file sex abuse and rape cases are again victimized through custodial rape. The civil face of society is known by the way it treats its prisoners. The proud Indians and Pakistanis have not improved their lot since 1947.

A nation who treats there soldiers as such - no wonder has been enslaved for centuries.....dont join the Army - moral of the story........there were 90,000 prisoners returned and couldn`t get handful back.....


All Indians should go to Delhi and urinate on the leaders graves/samdhis till they are wiped out.....and sing, ``Saaray Jahan Say Gandha Hindustan tumahra, tum harami ho uskay waih kahjar ghat tumahra....`` and then shove the tiranga up the rear till it pops out the other end.........

``Why do we accept the Pakistan government’s denials despite all the proof that they kept back our men.``

What choice does India have?

``DO OUR SOLDIERS NOT DESERVE MORE?``

Tell us, what more?

Since 1971 to the present, we have seen highs of peace and lows of war clouds and nuclear tests. At no time has Pakistan relented on this issue. Musharraf even lied about there being no Indian soldiers in Pakistani jails and then five years later released two Indian soldiers captured during Kargil. The one Muslim soldier had his personal life destroyed because Pakistan did not even acknowledge the fact that he was alive and a prisoner. The fact is that India can only appeal on humanitarian grounds (as in the case of Sarabjit Singh) but those do not go anywhere unless there is acknowledgement from the other side.

This helplesness is infuriating but what is the course of action that is possible? They have the same issue as well. In peacetime, India shot down a PN Atlantique with officers and sailors on board. We could have chased it back into Pakistan but we preferred to shoot it down. Our revenge for Pak shooting down two of our planes during Kargil. What could they do? Nothing but gnash their teeth.