Letter from Multan Yes, we know it`s a tricky issue. It requires someone with a vision and foresight, someone who can lift himself up and see the larger human picture to resolve this. For we just want to know- If Maj Ghosh`s photo came as a Prisoner in pakistan, then logically there has tobe an answer towhere he went. Similarly maj Suri`s letter.

What we have found is that Air Force and Army officers who were repatriated and who had told us they had been in certain jails here, we have not found their records either in 1971 and 1972- basically records of military persons are kept separate.

Temporary Marriage in Islam its surprising how people tend to take comments on their religion so personally. If there is a God, then that God is the God of all religions. Religions often have certain codes or rituals which have been laid down by men and so can be fallible. Things keep changing so why not religions?
Hinduism has it`s own pitfalls- Sati was one. Widow remarriage another. Varanasi still teems with women who got widowed and had their families abandon them. Child marriage,female infanticide etc cut across all religions. Just as religion has it`s upside-it is useful to build up community ties etc, it has it`s downsides. People need to be more open to discussion and change. Useful article.

Dealing with Addiction As i said this was more of an existential post- a reflection on the meaning of life- rather than to try and find means of rehabilitation for recovering users. Rehabilitation etc are separate questions which are best dealt with on other sites.

Dealing with Addiction Re: # 1 I agree. I had not kept that name - it was more existential. The names have all been changed.

33 Years and Counting 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.

33 Years and Counting 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.

33 Years and Counting 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.

33 Years and Counting 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.

33 Years and Counting 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 Cinephile’s Choice From India- Bandini and Kaagaz ke phool. If you include bengali in Indian - then Pather Panchali surely.

Im no connoisseur of films, but yes Garam Hawa

AUstralian films- Picnic on hanging Rock,

33 Years and Counting 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.)

33 Years and Counting That is why We had asked the Pakistanis for list of their soldiers- if any were missing. Riaz Khokhar had said in 1996 to Zee TV that around 250 of their own soldiers were missing but he said they had told the families to presume that they had been killed in war- ``Shaheed ho gaye hain.`` Does that mean the Pakistani govt has closed the case and is not following it up? I dont know.

Secondly it`s not impossible that these people be released. 2 POWs from the Chinese war in 1962 were repatriated after 43 years by India recently- I`ll post the details if required. They had been in ranchi Mental hospital and in fact a colleague of mine had told me of one of them after he learnt that my father was on the list of POWs.

So if anyone is still alive , they can be returned. The problem is if these men`s names were changed to muslim ones on jail records which is likely as after maj Suri`s letter in 1975 , it became a sensitive issue and someone somewhere decided this had to be covered up; but if their names were changed, only these people would be able to tell us who they are. If someone could find out what happened- whether they were rehabilitated even within Pakistan( there are rumours of that even), it would be an interesting tale.

33 Years and Counting The letter has been verified by handwriting excerpts. I have a copy of the letter, I have a copy of Maj Ghosh`s photograph published by Time Magazine, Copies of newspaer articles saying Tombay had been captured alive and witnesses who heard the announcements of the capture.

As I said, these men are kept separate, specially after 1975- maybe even killed or converted - But ehy were there. Maj Ayaaz Ahmed Sipra told Mohan lal Bhaskar that he had befriended a Gill of the Indian Air force and a Capt Singh of the Indian army in the fort of Attock when Maj Sipra was there facing charges for attempting to overthrow Bhutto. He also told him there were others there.

33 Years and Counting Re: # 43
I understand that you are sceptical. there was a programme on Ndtv today and a Mr Bhandara- a Pakistan MP faced some of the families. he seemed like a sincere man and honestly didnt believe there could have been any soldiers kept back. he kept saying Musharraf has given an assurance that he would not keep soldiers.

But face facts now- Pakistan announced their capture. Maj Suri sent 2 letters back. Various men have mentioned seeing them but after Maj Suri`s letters noone met them directly- saw them or heard of them. They mention that they are kept separately. Asma Jehangir said when she met the families that most likely they would be kept separate- in the fort of Attock perhaps. Others say they are moved every few months.

Now Even if they are no longer there- Where did they go? Either they died in prison in Pakistan as they didnt return or are still languishing there. Their names were announced as having been captured alive so POWs they were. That is indisputable.

As per me it is ridiculous to ask us- the relatives to provide proof- the Pakistani govt announced their capture- it is the Indian govt`s fault it is so slack- it should insist these men are there and should be returned as a matter of priority or it should be laid out clearly where they went. If they died - How and when and return their remains. India too may have soldiers.of Pakistan. If so give us their names and details of capture.

It is not, as I said an India does not have but Pakistan has POWs issue. A colleague of mine said there was a chinese fellow in Ranchi Mental hospital who some believed may have been a POW. India is not sacrosanct. Ultimately people are the same everywhere. look at the US and the way they have treated POWs. We are all human. As Pakistanis you are in a better position to find out if there is anyone in the prisons there. If you can or know of someone who can help, it would be great.

33 Years and Counting reply to 3 and 4

I am talking of soldiers- Indian army officers and men who were captured alive during the 1971 war- I know there are a number of civilians who are languishing needlessly on both sides of the border and I would be happy to see them released. I dont beleive in nations or wars but they happen, so one has to accept. I also accept that people die in wars. I am just saying that the Pakistanis themselves announced the capture of these men. As per all international conventions it is upto themnow to tell us what happened to these men.

I am just trying to get information on that and have them released. General MuSharraf is a soldier. he would tell you it is every soldier`s right to be sent back to his country after war ends and to send back his remains if he dies. This is not a ``how dare you blame pakistan issue``- things happen, have happened- now let`s resolve it and put it behind us. Whose urns are lying in Kot Lakhpat? Are any of these soldiers still alive?

Born Again Reply to 4- Yes, Veeresh, nb showed me this. god knows who these people are. We may not ever know what really happened but i guess we have to keep trying.
Reply to the rest- well, I`m not a reporter. And this is not a story of all sikhs with hair, just one. It`s based on an aquaintance who did contemplate suicide and cut off his har so his family wouldnt recognise him. I just tried to get into his head.