Ghar kab Aaoge, kaho kab aaoge...Yeh ghar tum bina suna suna hai...

A few days back, the country went in frenzy with Sarabjeet Singh-Surjeet Singh issue. Countrymen suffered the anguish and pain experienced by the family of both, for long number of years, along with them. Person in foreign jails presumably and not being aware of their precise where abouts, is horrifying.
Surjeet Singh, after being freed from Pakistan jail, claimed that there are number of Indian soldiers in Pak jails, living dreadful existence. Many of them, who had fought relentlessly and laid their lives to free our motherland from foreign [its irony, we have to mention Pakistan as foreign, which was very much part of our own dear homeland, a few years back....] attacks. It is sadly shocking that Indian Govt.s in center, have hardly taken any firm and unyielding steps, [except on counted occasion] to free these dedicated sons of India.
After Bangla Desh war, in 1971, Bharat freed 93,007 Pakistani soldiers  held in Eastern [Bangla] border and 3,703 soldiers on Western border, near Pakistan. Total of 96,710 Pak soldiers, were respectfully handed back to Pak authorities. On our front, Pakistan freed 616 war prisoners but did not free 54 more, out of them 34 were of Officer’s ranking!!! In 1972, when Late Mrs. Gandhi, the then P.M. signed the Shimla Agreement and returned the land to Pak, which was won by Indian army, she hesitated in demanding custody of those 54 war prisoners, who are till date, leading hideous existence in Pak jails.
When Gen. Zia-Ul-Haque capured power from the then P.M. of Pakistan, Late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto in 1978 and he was in Kot-Lakhpat prison. He was unable to sleep at nights due to voice and noise of shriek and cries. He enquired to the officials and the truth came out...The war prisoners of 1971 Indo-Pak war, were physically and mentally tortured and they were in disoriented state, thus this screams.!!! This story has been portrayed in Victoria Scofield, BBC reporter’s book, “Bhutto’s trial and execution”.
In 1979, during Chaudhary Charan Singh’s rule the then MoS for External Affairs, Shri Samrendra Kundu had presented a list of 54 war prisoners, who had fought against the foe, Pakistan risking their own lives. 29 of them were from army and 25 belonged to air force.
But,
The irony is the Indian Govt.s have never really insisted adamantly to liberate these national heroes!!! Except on one occasion, when Shri Atal Bihari Bajpayee had raised the issue in Agra Summit in 2001 with Parvez Mushraff, the Pak president of that time
 but,
With the failure of the summit, the issue got buried there and then.
It is not the matter of Pakistan’s shamelessness  and disregarding reverence of international agreements  only but it is about Indian Govt.s  pathetically feeble conduct. In Dec.1971, Pak radio announced the capturing of five Indian Pilots alive. Indian Govt. has the recording as proof, Indian spies, for N number of times repeatedly affirmed the news that more than 40 war prisoners are in captive but despite of all these Indian Govt. could not gather courage to pressurize Pak to release  the them. Neither at the time of Shimla Agreement, nor after it!!!
Out of these 54 ill-fated once, two of them belong to Gujarat. Flt. Lieutenant Nagaswami Shankar hails from Vadodara and Captain Kalyan Rathod is from Sabarkantha district. On their behalf, Advocate M.K. Pal from Rajkot has been diligently fighting for the cause in Gujarat High Court. On last 20th April, Gujarat High Court, passed a verdict, condemning  the  central govt. for their negligence in undertaking efforts of liberating these 54 soldiers of Mother India. The Gujarat High Court ordered the Central Govt. to provide the kith and kin of those soldiers with entire pay of all these years as well as the pension package, within two weeks. The Gujarat HC also ordered the Central Govt. to appeal in International Court of Justice, for liberation of these soldiers.
But,
The Central Govt. did the unimaginable...
They agreed to the order of Gujarat HC. regarding payment and pension but appealed in Hon. SC against Gujarat HC in the matter of challenging Pakistan in International Court of Justice!!! What should have been a  voluntary  move by the Central Govt. to persist about liberating Indian war prisoners, in stead the”Hon” Central Govt. is filing case against the issue!!!
Lieutenant Carnal Rajkumar Pattu and Brigadier Manmohan Sharma have written a documentation kind of thesis called “Indian Prisoners of War in Pakistan”. It contains  the evidences and testimony about the prisoner’s heartbreaking condition  and their family’s plight. The book has Major A.K. Ghosh’s picture on the cover  and in 1991 issue of Time magazine, the same Major Ghose standing behind the bar has appeared on cover.
Flt. Lieutenant Harvinder Singh is [was?] son of Squadron Leader Gurubaksh Singh. He was informed about his son being incarcerate in the hands of enemy and was sent the address for communication. Gurubaksh Singh wrote innumerable letters but received no reply. When he contacted  the Air Force headquarters, he was instructed to appeal for the pension stating that his son was no more and refused to part with any more details. Without proof, the Squadron Leader was not prepared to believe it and obtain death pension!!!
Similar is the case of Flt. Lieutenant V.P. Tambe. On 4th Dec. ’71, Tambe’s aircraft was shot and smashed. Pak newspapers published the news and Mrs. Damyanti Tambe, consoled herself that her husband was still alive. When Pakistani authority handed over the 616 war prisoners post war, he was not one among many. Mrs Tambe pleaded and implored the authority but Indian authority was unmoved. She was instructed to accept the death pension, instead!!! In 1978, during Morarji Desai’s tenure as PM, one Bangladeshi defense officer came to Jamnagar and on Jamnagar Airbase, met up with Tambe’s brother, who was in Air force, too. The Bangla officer informed Tambe’s brother that in Layalpur jail of Pakistan, a person named Tambe who has similar looks is kept and he keeps writing his name on wall with brick!!! Damyanti Tambe, appealed again. Advocate Pal has decided to support her in receiving justice.
In 1983, after Late Mrs. Gandhi regained power, the subject became persistent and Indira Gandhi decided to send six war prisoner’s families to Pakistan. They would be illustrated with all the said Indian prisoners and the family’s would recognize them. Pakistan never wished to agree on such arrangement but under  international pressure, they agreed to demonstrate them, very much reluctantly. As soon as they departed, Mrs. Gandhi passed a comment  criticizing Pak Govt. about disrespectful conduct with Khan Abdul Gafar Khan. The relations between two countries were strained again and in reaction, Pakistan showed only 3 prisoners, instead of 23 as promised and only the Multan jail. The prisoners were those who were involved in Smuggling or had crossed the border unintentionally!!!
And,
The group returned empty-handed. The Human Right Activists  of Pak, Ashma Jahangir and Ansar Burney supported the claim of war prisoner’s families. Ashma Jahangir, in her interview to BBC in 1991 had asserted that there were 43 war prisoners in Pak jails.
Advocate Pal states that his mission is to unshackle the soldiers, who have dedicated their lives for Ma Bharti. The Govt. can not forget them or disregard their kith’s plight. As per the information from an Indian Spy, only one Carnal has met with death but all others are alive and leading distasteful lives...
And,
It’s a disgrace for our Govt. in center.