33 Years and Counting

nb#61

``The captures were on the Indian side of Punjab just before hostilities broke out.``

No, I did not know this. How did these captures take place before hostilities broke out?

``needs to provide a list...``

Harish, neither India nor Pakistan needs to provide any new list now because each country can always dream up, for the purpose, a mile-long list of fictitious names.

We should go back and look at those cases that have been raised repeatedly in the past.

Re: # 64
I never asked the writer how exactly, but I hope she will feel free to tell your own story if I get it wrong...
What I think they were told, that is the families, was that there was a Pakistani raid on a couple of border towns and that`s where it happened. I do remember clearly that they wre taken on the Indian side of the border and never seen again...and to think this was a war India won. Is that right, Dr Waraich?
I also wish to remind people that every time the Missing Defence Personnel`s Families Association tries to contact Pakistanis, they are told there are Pakistani POWs in Indian jails. However, I have seen for myself that every time she or others offer to take up this matter and ask for a list of names, there is a deafening silence from the other side.
The sad thing is that people like Omar can`t even see the human side. The writer is a woman, who when I called to tell her about the London bombings and that the ABC was saying ``Islamic terrorists`` were involved, said, ``Muslims are the most marginalised and persecuted people in the world now, maybe some of them can`t see an option``. So we are not talking about Islam-bashers or Pakistan-bashers here. Some of my fellow Indians may be unimpressed, as I initially was,(London, that great city, beloved of all Bengalis,how dare anyone attack London?Delhi?now there`s another matter) but no one can miss this generosity of spirit.

nb#64:

Thanks for the info.

The following site deals with information on American POWs. http://www.aiipowmia.com/updates/updt0800.html
It also talks about 2 chinese prisoners taken by the Indians in the 1962 war who were recently repatriated after 43 yrs. Apparently they had been forgotten in Ranchi Mental hospital.

nb- you are biased because you know me!- and Omar did publish my letter in dawn. Im wondering if I can get him to publish another- we are now looking at requesting both governments to form a committee with officials of both sides, and NGOs like Asma Jehangirs and some family members who can have access to prisons and records. Perhaps some prisoners may have been given different names and got lost somewhere. Anything can happen.

My father was captured and Ashok Suri as well was captured before the war actually officially broke out but others were captured in the thick of it- Tambay whose name was published in Karachi`s Sunday Observeron december 4th, later Tambay`s uncle went to Pakistan with the junior cricket team in 1988 and requested Gen Tikka Khan to be just told whether his nephew was alive- he was taken 1 1/2 hours away to a building by army men and shown Tambay! You can imagine what the family felt after this. The article reads ``
When the Butcher softened to me by Jayant Jatar, Nagpur

Seventeen years after my nephew was declared missing in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, Pakistani authorities took me to meet him in jail on General Tikka Khan’s orders. My family had last heard of Vijay Vasant Tambay on radio shortly after his aircraft, a Sukhoi-7, was shot down at Shorkot in Pakistan on December 5, 1971. (There was also a Pakistani newspaper report that a certain Tombay - the name obviously misspelt - had been captured.) Though the Indian government later put him on the list of its missing defence personnel, Pakistan had continually denied holding him or any other Indian soldier from the war. Still in our hearts we always knew he was there somewhere in Pakistan. His wife Damayanti waited for him. His old mother held on to her life, hoping to see her son come back home. In January 1989, while I was on an official tour to Pakistan with the under-19 cricket team, I met General Tikka Khan, the famous Butcher of Bangladesh, at a tea party in Gujranwala. The general was then the Governor of Punjab. As people chatted among themselves, I stepped up to the general and asked him: “My nephew is a PoW in Pakistan. I want to see him just once. Can you help me meet him? I am not interested in politics; his grandmother is 92 years old… she just wants to know whether her grandson is dead or alive. It was a strange request, or so he thought, and he dismissively said: ``Theek hai!`` (okay!)

The next day, our team moved from Gujranwala to Faisalabad (then called Lyallpur) and was put up at an old British club - the Chenab Club. At 7.00 am, I was woken up by a call; a voice I did not recognise said: “Get ready by 7.30 am. Tikka Khan has granted your wish.”
Promptly at 7.30 am, a big black car - I don`t remember the make - arrived at the club. A man in military attire stepped out and asked me to accompany him. I told him I would be back in a minute. I went back to my room and as a last minute thought put on my team blazer.

We were three people in the car; my ‘chaperon’ sitting next to the driver while I sat behind donning the black glasses I was given to wear. The windows too were black… obviously they did not want me to see where we were going! I was also instructed not to utter a word, before during or after our rendezvous had ended.

It was around 9:00 am when we reached our destination - a big yellowish building… those government kind of buildings. I could not survey my surroundings as I stepped out of the car. My man was on one side of me and the car door blocked my view on the other side.

I was then quickly whisked inside a big hall, with several cells. All the cells were empty except for one, where a man reading a newspaper was seated with his back to us.

The man motioned me to the prisoner who turned to face us when I coughed to draw attention. There he stood… my long lost nephew. His movements seemed normal; he seemed to have been treated well. He was wearing white Bengali kurta and pyjamas. There wasn’t much change in him, except that he had longer hair and a slight beard.

I was not too sure if my nephew had recognized me, and so I pointed to the Indian logo on my blazer and tried to scroll ‘J’ on my hand. My chaperon, obviously, realized what I was trying to do, and there and then he terminated the session and led me out to the waiting car.

That was the last I saw or heard of my nephew. I wanted to talk to General Tikka Khan later… but then it was not to be scheduled.

(This story stands indebted to Vijaya Sharma, who tracked Jayant Jatar to Nagpur and convinced him to break his 14-year silence.)

nb said: The sad thing is that people like Omar can`t even see the human side. The writer is a woman, who when I called to tell her about the London bombings and that the ABC was saying ``Islamic terrorists`` were involved, said, ``Muslims are the most marginalised and persecuted people in the world now, maybe some of them can`t see an option``. So we are not talking about Islam-bashers or Pakistan-bashers here. Some of my fellow Indians may be unimpressed, as I initially was,(London, that great city, beloved of all Bengalis,how dare anyone attack London?Delhi?now there`s another matter) but no one can miss this generosity of spirit.


nb -- sorry to say but with this post you have proved yourself an idiot -- if i didnt `even see the human side` i wonder how i was moved to writing the editorial -- which by the way was a follow up of simi warraich`s letter, which was partly published because i pushed for it --
i should add that in our editorial meeting today i made a strong case that the editorial should also the raise of POWs, something that the indian and pakistani govts did not touch upon in their talks this week


i think it`s good to speak when one knows of the facts , dont you think nb jee ?

Omar, I`m too much of an idiot to understand why writing that post made me an idiot, so please explain further, how and why. Thanks. Besides, thought you didn`t need or want applause?

#68 by waraich

I am afraid ms. Wariach the story about Tombay is pack of lies and nothing else.

Gen. Tikka Khan was never governor of Punjab. Not in 1989 or ever before that. He was a Minister of Defense in 1975-77.

Second, Lyallpur was named Faisalabld in the 70s and since then it is Faisalabd and was not called Lyallpur in 1989.

“He was wearing white Bengali kurta and pyjamas.”

Nobody wears Bengali kurta and pajama in Pakistan and some prisoners are issued shalwar kameez.

I am sorry this type of lies wont help your cause much.

I agree- this seems very vague and highly unlikely.

We dont use this anywhere. We cite announcement`s made by Pakistan at the time of capture, and Ashok SUri`s letter. There are reports of Prisoners, civilians, who have come back and say they have seen this one or that one but i feel the fact they were announced as captured alive by Pakistan means that Pakistan now has to inform us what happened to them?

Benazir Bhutto spoke of 40 Indian army personnel in kails in Pakistan and Asma jehangir had mentioned in 1999 that she had heard of 53 Indian army personnel in pakistan prisons.

A book published in 1980 from Lahore titled Bhutto—Trial and Execution written by Victoria Schofield, a senior BBC London reporter, covering the period of 1978 when Mr. Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, 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 midnight 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.” “Fifty odd lunatics were lodged in the ward next to mine. Their screams and shrieks in the dead of night are something I will not forgot,” wrote former Pakistan Prime Minister, Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, referring to Indian prisoners of war of 1965 and 1971 who were kept in a cell next to his in Kot Lakhpat prison.

Shri Mohanlal Bhaskar of Firozpur, who was in Pakistan jails between 1968 and 1974 and was repatriated on 9.12.1974, wrote a book (I was a spy of India in Pakistan) in which he stated that in fort of Attock, a Pakistani Major Ayaz Ahmed Sipra of Second Punjab Regiment of Pakistan, who was imprisoned for conspiring against Bhutto, spoke to an Indian PoW Mr. Gill of the Indian Air Force and one Captain Singh of the Indian Army and mentioned that there were around 40 PoWs of the 1965 and 1971 wars who are languishing in Kot Lakhpat jail and had no chances of release in future.

Maj. SPS Warraich’s name was reportedly announced on 5/6th December, 1971 as being captured alive after he and Maj. Kanwaljit Sandhu were captured on 3.12.1971 from the Hussainiwala sector. He was subsequently reportedly seen in Multan jail in January 1972. Again he was seen in 1988 by Mohinder Singh S/o Banka Singh, who was repatriated on 24.3.1988. He says he saw him again in Kot Lakhpat jail in February 1988. Gen Riaz told Mr Ashwini KUmar Ig BSF in 1972 at the Munich Olympics that Maj waraich was being kept in dargai jail of NWFP. Gen Riaz told him this as a personal favour after Ashwini Kumar had requested all his friends in Pakistan to inquire into the matter.

Time magazine of London, dated December 24, 1971, carried a photograph of Indian prisoners behind the bars. The said photograph turned out to be that of Major A.K. Ghosh, who was not returned by Pakistan Govt. with the rest of the PoWs.

2nd Lt. Paras Ram Sharma`s father heard his son`s particulars being announced on Pak Radio on Jan. 2, 8 and November, 29. L/NK Ram Lal (Retd.) (No. 9071130) of erstwhile 2 JAK Militia after his return from Pakistan said that he had met 2nd Lt. Paras Ram Sharma in Lahore jail for 5 days from 20.4.1973 to 24.4.1973 while awaiting his repatriation to India.

Balwan Singh, an Indian prisoner who returned home to India on 3.10.1998 after 9 years in Pakistan prisons, claims to have met Indian, PoWs of the 1971 war. He said there were seven jails in which the PoWs were rotated. He distinctly remembered one of the PoWs as Jagdish Raj who was being kept in “Phansi ki Kothi” (Fort of Attock) with other PoWs (L/NK Jagdish Raj figures in the list of 54 PoWs)

General Chuck Yeager of USA, who was on deputation with the Pakistan Air Force for training Pakistani pilots, has written a book of his role during the Indo-Pak war and has written in his book that he had interviewed about 20 Indian pilots in the Pakistani jails.

. Shri Rooplal Saharia had been in various Pakistani jails for 26 years from 1974 to 2000. He says that there were many Indian prisoners of war languishing in various Pakistani jails.

waraich#74, 73:

Your facts are quite detailed and persuasive. If despite such evidence, the govt. has denied any knowledge of their existence, it reinforces my earlier remark that they are unlikely to admit to their presence now and expose themselves. This is unfortunately the nature of the state, national image comes before justice to individuals.

Mr Bhandara told NDTv that Gen Musharraf was an honourable man and would not keep any soldiers in prison as was being suggested. Now read the following-

In a conversation with Mr. Harpal Nagra who is the president of the South Asian Human Rights Group reported that in connection with the Sarabjit Singh case, Mr Nagra’s agency had sent a delegation to Pakistan to Kot Lakhpat Jail in 2004. When his representative who was a Sikh man with a turban was visiting, he saw an older man (75 -80 years old, very thin) and he wished him salaam waalequm. The prisoner replied by saying Waheguruji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh (a sikh greeting) and told him that he was in prison for many years with many more military prisoners and their cases had not been taken up as they were prisoners of war and they are not allowed to make any contact with outsiders. He said they had been forced to convert to Islam and read namaaz everyday. Mr. Nagra`s representative got further information that there are more than 400 prisoners in different jails as well as urns with remains of those who have passed away. He says that he did give this information to newpapers last year too.

As for the earlier interact about the story on Gen Tikka Khan- I know it seems almost unreal but I believe Gen Tikka Khan was the governor of Punjab then in 1989 and I know Vijaya- she is a sincere journalist- the story may well be true.

waraich:

``Mr Bhandara told NDTv that Gen Musharraf was an honourable man and would not keep any soldiers in prison as was being suggested.``

I salute your faith. But Musharraf almost certainly has all this information but he still hasn`t acted. He may be an honourable man but he has withstood pressure even from Americans wrt AQ Khan, Omar Sheikh and others when it was a matter of saving Pakistan`s face. There is something similar here. If these prisoners are to be released, a way has to be found in which Pakistan can do so without it appearing that it had been lying all along.

Simmi
I forwarded your earlier letters to Moni Basu, a staff reporter of Atlanta Journal & Constitution. I hope that she will be able to help you...