Maj S.P.S. Warraich with wife and daughters Simmi and Neetu just before going for the 1971 warOn the border of hope
Kashmir Singhs release from Pakistan prison after 35 years has rekindled hopes of other prisoners relatives in India, reports Nirupama Dutt.
The mood in Nangal Choran, a far-flung village of Hoshiarpur district in Punjab, is upbeat. Kashmir Singh, 70, an inhabitant of the village, who was on death row in Pakistan, returned home recently, courtesy the efforts of Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Human Rights, Ansar Burney. If Singh languished in various Pakistani jails for over three decades, it was imprisonment of another kind for his wife, Paramjit Kaur, 62, who struggled to bring up three children, while waiting for their father to return.“It was a sad winter day in December 1973 when my husband made his own tea and crossed the border while the children and I were asleep. I thought he would come back in a few days but the days multiplied into a lifetime. I did menial work to bring up my children and I never lost hope. My prayers have been answered and at last, he is back,” says Paramjit Kaur.
The near miraculous escape of alleged spy Singh has rekindled anticipation among other prisoners of hope: relatives of the 54 persons who have been missing since they were taken prisoners of war in 1971. Chandigarh-based Simmi Waraich, 40, was not yet four and her younger sister Neetu, barely two when her father Major S P S Waraich was captured by the enemy in the 1971 war. “I do not remember much of my father but from what I heard of him. My entire childhood was spent waiting for him and I still have hope. Hope is the ultimate casualty in any war but we are not willing to give up. My mother remarried in 1985 (with the support of her daughters and her husband’s family) after having made every possible effort for 14 years because it was confirmed that he was held prisoner in the Darghai jail in the North West Frontier Province.” There are others who never reconciled with their lot and refused to remarry. Among them is Reshma Advani, 60, who had been married for six months and was expecting when her husband Flt Lt Ram Advani’s plane was shot down and he was taken prisoner of war (PoW). Reshma heard the news on Radio Pakistan. Some months later their daughter Dolly was born. Dolly Advani, 36, who is now married and lives in Delhi, says, “When I was younger, I would tell my mother to remarry but my mother was hopeful and still hopes that my father will return.” Dolly adds that more than the Pakistan government, she is unhappy with the Indian government for not effectively taking the case of the prisoners soon after the war.Damayanti Tambay, 59, a former badminton singles champion and physical education director at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, too heard the news of her husband being taken a PoW in 1971 and a Pakistani newspaper also published the news. She had been married only 18 months to Flt Lt Vijay Vasant Tambay. Damayanti says, “Miracles do happen but someone has to make them happen.”Simmi, Reshma and Damayanti were part of a group of 14 wives and five other kin who went looking for their dear ones in Pakistan prisons in the summer of 2007, only to return home disappointed. Cynics said that the search was carried out 36 years – too late and litterateurs described it as a Kafkaesque journey, but for Damayanti it was the final effort and she says, “What happened to them? Did Pakistan eventually shoot them or were they killed trying to escape or did they die of disease? We should know at least that.”The kin of the missing soldiers have formed the Missing Defence Personnel Relatives Association. Bharat Suri, the elder brother of Maj Ashok Suri, still keeps hope alive with the 1975 letter of his PoW brother, Maj Ashok Suri, written to his father Dr R S Suri. Dr Suri died after spending long years making rounds of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a bid to trace his son. In 1983, six family members went to Pakistan on a visit, invited by General Zia-ul-Haq, the then president of Pakistan. It was a hush-hush affair as it was felt that too much media attention would mar chances of release. But things went wrong and relations soured when Indira Gandhi made some comments about Abdul Gaffar Khan’s house arrest. Bharat has decided to take his fathers campaign further. He says, “Members of the Association will call on Kashmir to gather more information on other Indian prisoners. After all, he has spent 35 years in different jails and may have also seen our relatives.”It is a controversial issue and the Indian Army, too, has not been able to resolve it. The government had tabled a list saying they believe there are 54 Missing Defence Personnel believed to be in Pakistan. But the army listed most of these men as killed, along with them Maj Suri also, until his letter came. The letter was apparently authenticated by the MEA in the 1970s. However, when the delegation went to Pakistan, the government did not heed their request for issuing a certificate of authenticity of the letter.There was another curious case. A copy of ‘Time’ magazine dated December 27, 1971 carried a picture of an Indian soldier behind bars. The wife of Maj A K Ghosh identified the picture as her husband’s. What happened to him? A disturbing account in ‘Bhutto, Trial and Execution', on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s trial and execution, by BBC correspondent Victoria Schofield, mentions that the Pakistani leader was jailed at Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore before his 1979 hanging close to the barracks of Indian PoWs ‘who had been rendered delinquent and mental during the course of the 1971 war’. During the prisoner exchange, “the Indian government would not accept these lunatics,” the book says. Both the Indian army and government should have at least refuted this.Simmi says, “We have been asking for a Missing in Action cell on the lines of the cell in the US. The Government promised this but nothing has happened so far."
Women's Feature Service, March 30, 2008
