Reciprocity in Attacking Each Others’ Prisoners

When it comes to reciprocity, there is no equal to the kind practised by India and Pakistan with each other. No wonder, because it requires a special talent to mirror hostility in such a perfectly choreographed manner. The attack on prisoner Sanaullah Haq in Jammu’s Kot Bhalwal jail that sent him into a coma and led to his eventual death from multi-organ failure was part of the endless tit-for-tat that the two countries end up playing with each other. That it was a fellow prisoner who assaulted him in retaliation for the killing of Sarabjit in Pakistan by inmates does not exonerate Indian officialdom. In fact, it is unforgivable that even after there was an alert across jails to ensure no revenge attacks on Pakistani prisoners, the Jammu attack could not be prevented. The jail superintendent and other officials have rightly been suspended, and an inquiry has been ordered.

Even so, the incident has exposed India as a country that still has to grow up, and that despite its eagerness to pretend otherwise, suffers from some of the same dysfunctionalities as its western neighbour.

In keeping with the pattern, Pakistan gave a state funeral to Sanaullah, a Harkat-ul-Ansar militant convicted and sentenced to life for two bomb blasts in Kashmir, to match the one given Sarabjit, convicted for bomb blasts that killed 14 people in Pakistan.

None of this reciprocal madness gives much hope for the future of India-Pakistan relations.

Until now, tit-for-tat hostility was practised only by officials on both sides, sometimes targeting each other’s diplomats for surveillance, attacks or expulsion, at other times targeting ordinary people, as for instance by denying them visas or harassing them in other ways.

What is worrying about the Sanaullah incident is that people-to-people relations are also on their way to getting tainted in the same way, and officials are allowing this to happen. A section of khadims at the Ajmer dargah said they would not permit Pakistani pilgrims to attend the urs. Shockingly, New Delhi also recommended to Pakistan that the pilgrimage be called off as after the Sarabjit incident, it could not ensure the security of travellers from across the border. Going by this, next it will be the turn of the Sikh jathas who go on pilgrimages to gurudwaras in Pakistan to face a similar situation. Before it comes to that, the cycle of nastiness has to be broken.

Telling Pakistani pilgrims that they are welcome to come to Ajmer would be a good place to begin. And there’s no need to demand reciprocity.

Convicted Indian spy Sarabjit Singh suffered severe injuries in the head when some suspects attacked him when he left his barracks for strolling in Kot Lakhpat jail on April 26, 2013. Singh was admitted to the ICU of the Jinnah Hospital where a medical board comprising senior neurosurgeons was treating him. He later died.

The suspects attacked Singh when he left his barracks for strolling. They assaulted him with bricks and other blunt weapons and left him seriously injured. The reason behind the incident could not be immediately ascertained.

Profusely bleeding, Singh was initially moved to the surgical emergency of the Jinnah Hospital.

Sarabjit was received with several deep head injuries and he was unconscious. He was wearing a police trouser and casual shirt when shifted to the emergency. Keeping in view the deteriorating condition of the patient an endotracheal tube had been placed into the trachea (windpipe) to help him breathe artificially. After initial treatment in the emergency unit, Singh had been shifted to the main ICU and put on ventilator.

In September 2012, Singh had written a letter to his sister and daughters, alleging that the jail authorities were slow-poisoning and mentally torturing him.

Quoting the prosecution, the official said Singh had illegally crossed into Pakistan on Aug 29, 1990. He was arrested on charges of carrying out four bombings in Faisalabad, Multan and Lahore and was later sentenced to death.

Preneet Kaur, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, has said that “it is deplorable that this attack took place. The Indian High Commission has sought consular access. As soon as we get a response, we will act”. Two officials from the Indian embassy have rushed to Lahore from Islamabad. Pakistan Foreign Office in a statement said it would investigate the incident.

Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur has said: “I had told everybody he is not safe. This is a conspiracy. The attack was pre-planned.”

The Kot Lakhpat jail currently has some 17,000 prisoners though its official capacity is only 4,000. There have been instances in the past of prisoners being killed within the prison.

Authorities had tightened Singh’s security after the recent execution in India of Afzal Guru, who was convicted of involvement in the 2001 terror attack on the parliament.

Singh’s mercy petitions were rejected by courts and former President Pervez Musharraf. The outgoing PPP-led government put off Singh’s execution for an indefinite period in 2008.

Just a few months back, an Indian prisoner died in mysterious circumstances at the same Kot Lakhpat prison. He was allegedly inhumanely beaten to death for committing the ‘crime’ of washing his clothes at a public tap at the courtyard of the jail. India alleges that the jail authorities did not request the hospital authorities to conduct an autopsy for almost two months. Even after the autopsy the report has still not been presented.

The Lahore High Court refused to entertain a petition for the inquiry into the mysterious death of the prisoner on the pathetic argument that the lawyer did not have power of attorney from the victim’s family (who are in India). This is contradictory to the fact that the higher courts take so moto actions on political cases without obtaining ‘power of attorney’ to gain popularity in the media.

He was represented by Mr. Awais Shiekh who acted on behalf of the victim, following reports published in the Daily Express Tribune.

Chamail Singh, son of Salaar Singh, (48), a resident of Targwal Khalkay village, Akhnoor tehsil, in Jammu, India, was imprisoned on spying charges after a military trial sentenced him in June 2012. At the time of his death he was nearing the end of his sentence of five years due to time served. Singh was tried by a military court in Sialkot, Punjab, under section 59 of the Pakistan Army Act 1951 for spying and imprisoned.

Mr. Tehseen Khan, a lawyer by profession, who was released just three days after Chamail Singh’s death, told the Express Tribune, on 18 January that he witnessed Singh’s killing. He said that that at 7:45am on 15 January Singh was washing his clothes at a tap in the jail’s courtyard when Assistant Superintendent of Jail (ASJ) Nasir Nawaz with two chakar imdadis or hawaldars, Muhammad Sidique and Muhammad Nawaz, stopped him.

The ASJ asked him “does he think the jail is his home where he can wash his clothes wherever he wants?” The officials also taunted him saying how an Indian spy enjoys himself after working against Pakistan. The agents should not have such facilities. They also used some filthy and derogatory words against Indians, Khan told the newspaper.

When Singh responded, the hawaldars started beating him on the orders of the ASJ. The ASJ himself allegedly pounded Singh with his fists. Kicks by the others drew blood from Singh’s upper lip and brow. The newspapers quoted Tehseen as saying that the three men continued to beat him for a full minute, at the end of which he was dead. The jailors then dispatched Singh’s body to the jail hospital.

In desperation to hide their crime, the jail authorities took affidavits on plain paper from eight prisoners, all Indian nationals, that his death was natural. This was done in the absence of a magistrate which is a legal requirement. According to Express Tribune (ET) the affidavits state that Singh lit a cigarette after washing his clothes and died of natural causes. Later on his body was shifted to Jinnah Hospital where it was kept for almost two months in the morgue. No autopsy was conducted and the Punjab provincial government tried to cover up the whole incident.

The autopsy of the body was finally conducted on 13 March two months after his death but the report has not yet surfaced despite the fact that it was announced that report will come out on or before 25 March. The Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) and other agencies have confirmed that Singh was tortured to death. The newspaper received the initial report from the hospital that “traces of four injuries were found on Singh’s body including a fracture in the right knee joint, an abrasion on his upper lip and injuries on his thigh.

By delaying Singh’s post-mortem report, the Kot Lakhpat prison authorities tried to hide the marks of injuries on his body caused by the beating, advocate Awais Sheikh, who works as a counsel for Indian prisoners in Pakistan, told ET.

After publication of the news in ET, the same lawyer filed a petition in the High Court of Lahore for an inquiry into the death of an Indian prisoner by torture. The High Court immediately turned downed the petition on the grounds that the lawyer does not have power of attorney from Singh’s family. This was a clear effort by the High Court to save the provincial rulers from any embracement due to the case. The provincial government of Sharif has also not taken any action to probe the incident although ET has been continuously publishing follow ups of the incident since 28 January.

India Finds a 1971 War POW Kept by Pakistan

Truth finds ingenious ways to manifest itself. And time, it has often been seen, is of no consequence in its pursuit. For long, 41 years to be precise, Pakistan has been denying it has any prisoners of war (PoWs) in its custody. Now, for the first time, there’s evidence to suggest that when Pakistani leaders say “No PoWs in our jails”, they are speaking only half the truth. What they don’t tell you is that many who were taken prisoner in the 1971 war could have been shifted to remote areas in friendly countries to escape detection. Following a most fortuitous series of circumstances, evidence of the presence of one such soldier—Sepoy Jaspal Singh of 15 Punjab Regiment and a PoW of the ’71 war—has come from Masirah island, 15 kilometres off the coast of Oman, which houses a military base.

The news of Jaspal Singh’s incarceration in what is called Purana Jail in Masirah was brought by Sukhdev Singh, a poor carpenter from Dugri village of Ropar district in Punjab. Sukhdev had gone to Oman in 2010 for work, as part of which he was sent to Masirah for some repair work at Purana Jail. Jaspal Singh, now around 70 years of age, approached him on seeing a turbaned Sikh. “He asked me which village I was from. When I told him, Dugri, he said it was his in-laws’ village,” Sukhdev said. “He would be serving tea and doing odd jobs for officials there. Though he looked like a Muslim with a skullcap and long beard, he spoke to me in Punjabi and told me the names of several people from my village. Over the next few days, very slowly, meeting me for not more than five minutes at a time to escape notice from his minders, Jaspal told me about the December 3 operation near Hussainiwala in which he was captured, his regiment’s name and details about his family.” He also told Sukhdev that four more soldiers had been captured along with him in the course of the operation, when a bridge near Ferozepur collapsed, leaving two companies of his battalion stranded on the other side of the river. All five PoWs were kept in Pakistan jails for five or six years and three shifted subsequently to Masirah jail. Jaspal does not know the whereabouts of the others.

When he returned in July 2012, Sukhdev immediately contacted Jaspal’s family, comprising his wife Baljit Kaur (who has been living a widow’s life all these years) and two sons. After several futile visits to the district sainik board office, the family got in touch with Lt Col S.S. Sohi (retd), who runs an NGO for ex-servicemen in Mohali. Sohi first contacted 15 Punjab regiment as well as the battalion’s commanding officer during the war, Lt Col A.S. Cheema (retd). Cheema confirmed the enemy attack on the evening of December 3, 1971, wherein they suffered the loss of three officers and many others. Jaspal had been reported missing and presumed dead since then. Sohi then informed CoAS Gen Bikram Singh, and although the latter has not responded so far, the matter was brought to the notice of the Indian embassy in Oman through some retired officers working for the repatriation of Indian PoWs. Capt Arjun Nair, the Indian defence attache in Muscat, has affirmed that the embassy has issued a note verbale to the Omani government requesting details of personnel incarcerated in Masirah island, and consular access. The ambassador has also informed the Omani foreign minister and sought assistance in locating the missing persons.

Evidence about the presence of Indian PoWs in Pakistan has been surfacing off and on, either in the form of an odd letter smuggled out of prison, debriefing of intelligence agents returning after serving sentences in Pakistan jails, and in 2005, when a human rights activist reported seeing 30 urns of ashes of 1971 PoWs lying in the Kot Lakhpat jail of Lahore. Based on these fragments, the government had compiled a list of 54 PoWs which it repeatedly presents to Pakistan but whose government steadfastly refuses to acknowledge PoW presence. As G.S. Gill, brother of Wg Cdr H.S. Gill whose plane was shot down over Badin in Dec ’71, says, “It is up to our government to do something more than accept their word.” Many of the PoWs would have died, which is why many in the government, and sadly in the defence establishment too, see it as a fruitless exercise, not worth pursuing actively any more. What hasn’t died, however, is hope in the hearts of the PoW’s next-of-kin, who haven’t given up on some definitive information on their loved ones. Sukhdev’s story has reignited this hope.

It shows up in the words of Simi Waraich, daughter of Maj S.P.S. Waraich, also from 15 Punjab, who went missing in the same Hussainiwala attack and whose name is on the government list of 54 PoWs, “This is the first-ever solid evidence we have after so many years, and its significance has still to hit government functionaries. If the government acts decisively, it can nail Pakistan’s lie once and for all, because now we have definitive proof that our PoWs had been shifted elsewhere.”

Simi and a handful of people from the Missing Defence Personnel Relatives Association (MDPRA) have met every single spy returning from Pakistani jails, and had in 2007 (seeOutlook story), on the invitation of President Pervez Musharraf, visited several Pakistani jails to search for their kin. “Pakistan’s lies have been proved time and again,” says Simi. “During the 2001 Agra summit, President Musharraf said they did not have any Indian PoWs, but events proved that Sepoys Jagseer Singh and Mohammed Arif, captured in the Kargil war, were in their jails; they were released in 2004. Why should we then believe their bland negation? It is also sad that while our government is facilitating the US army to trace remains of their ww-ii casualties, and Bangladesh to retrieve DNA samples of their ’71 war dead, it does little to follow up leads like this which can help us find our still alive PoWs.”

In fact, on the insistence of the MDPRA, the government formed a tri-service committee for missing defence personnel headed by a vice-admiral a little over a year ago. However, as Simi points out, “It has almost no teeth, hardly ever meets and has not been provided the means to investigate leads like this one. It has not made any effort to get in touch with the next-of-kin like us, who have collected evidence over the years. Even now, it is we who have on our own informed them about Sepoy Jaspal Singh. They do not even have the report compiled by us after our 2007 visit to Pakistan.”

Sukhdev, meanwhile, goes about earning his living, oblivious to the import of his testimony. Jas Uppal, a US-based human rights lawyer, who has taken up the case of Sarabjit Singh, the Indian spy on death row in Pakistan, and shot off letters to the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch about the existence of Jaspal, said of Sukhdev, “He is an international witness, whose safety is the duty of the Indian government. He has brought evidence of a war crime and needs to be protected.” Is anyone listening?

 

Is Sarabjit Singh a RAW Agent or Innocent?

Sarabjit Singh, the son of Sulakhan Singh, a farmer by profession, was a resident of Bhikhiwind village, five miles from the Pakistani border and 45 kilometers fromAmritsar,Punjab,India. He had illegally crossed the Indian border at Qasoor, the border city ofPunjab,Pakistan, in the late hours of August 29 and 30, 1990, in a drunken condition.

In those days there was no barbed wire barrier between the Indian and Pakistani borders, however, there were check posts all around and there was also a no man’s land between the borders themselves. At that time he was 28 years of age. He was arrested at the Pakistani check post by the officials of ISI and kept in their custody for nine days before being produced in court.

When Sarabjit was arrested on entering Pakistanillegally, during those days Pakistanwas under pressure from the international community to wind up its policy for the establishment of Khalistan, a Sikh based independent state in India. In the late 1980′s during the period of military dictator, General Zia ul Haq, Pakistan was accused of running training camps for Sikh militants in Pakistanand establishing a Sikh state inside the India. With the change of the governments in Pakistanthe policies were also changed in context to Indiaand Sikhs, like Sarabjit, were arrested in Pakistan on various charges including on spying and terrorism.

In the early 90s there was high tension and threats of war between India and Pakistan after winding up the policy for creating Khalistan. There was suddenly an increase in the terrorist attacks witnessed in Indian held Kashmir by Jihadi groups from Pakistan and India accused Pakistan of involvement. Meanwhile, after this policy was also adopted in India hundreds of Pakistanis, with their family members, were arrested as Pakistani agents. It is largely because of this that the decision of the trial court to award the death sentence to Sarabjit Singh was generally welcomed in Pakistan and no one took the notice of unfair trial.

He was eventually produced before the judicial magistrate in one FIR, a police case, in the name of Manjeet Singh son of Mohanga Singh for conducting four bomb blasts in the three cities of Punjab province namely,Lahore,Multan andFaisalabad on July 29, 1990, killing 14 persons.

Before his production in court, Sarabjit was told by the ISI personnel that he would be charged for illegally entering Pakistan. He was allegedly implicated in the bomb blast which occurred one month before he crossed the Indian border and entered in to Pakistani area. His statement under section 342 of Pakistan Penal Code was taken where he denied the charges and recorded that he is not the Manjeet Singh whose name was mentioned in the FIR. In his confessional statement he refused all allegations mentioned in the FIR and said that the real accused person, Manjeet Singh, was arrested by the agencies and was released and allowed to run away but that he was falsely implicated in the case.

He was tried in aSpecial Court on terrorism charges. During the trial he informed the court that he was not the Manjeet Singh mentioned in the FIR and that his name was Sarabjit Singh, the son of Sulakhan Singh. However, he was told by the magistrate that his name is mentioned as Manjeet Singh alias Sarabjit Singh son of Mohanga Singh. He also informed the court that his father’s name is Salukhan Singh but this was not given any weight by the court.

The trial court awarded him the death sentence under section of 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of Pakistan Penal Code and section 3 of explosive substance on August 15, 1991, a significant day as it is the day of independence of India.

The sole eye witness of the bomb blasts in Lahore, Mr. Saleem Shoukat, said in an interview with Indian television channels in September 2005 that he was tortured to give evidence against the Sarabjit leading to his conviction. He was told by the prosecution lawyer that he should identify Sarabjit as the main accused in the serial blasts and he had to do that. He admitted that he had not seen the accused as he had fainted during the blasts.

Sarabjit Singh, according to the petition of reconsideration filed in the Supreme Court on March 2011, strongly agitated that he has been substituted as Manjit Singh with mala-fide intention. He has been made a victim of false identification.

Sarabjit says that when he was given the death sentence by the trial court on the Independence Day of his country his hands were bound and he was blindfolded. Furthermore, when he was sent to jail after sentencing the inmates beat him as a gesture of welcoming his sentence.

According to the Hindustan Times, in an article dated December 7, 2010, Sarbjit Singh commented about his trial in a letter written in Hindi in which he states: “However, with the help of deceit and lies finally I was made Manjeet Singh by Pakistan and was convicted in the bomb blast case”.

During the trial he could not have a lawyer because he did not have any money with him and his family did not know where he was. Also, the court totally ignored the basic requirement of justice and failed to provide with a lawyer.

His appeal against the decision of the trial court was turned down by theLahore high court on December 10, 2001.

The Supreme Court also quashed his appeal in September 2005, saying that the review petition was not filed within the time period as mentioned in the Law.

Another review petition was filed in the Supreme Court which was dismissed in haste by the court in 2009. The two member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Fayyaz Ahmed, issued notice for the hearing on June 10, 2009 and when the lawyer was not there the next date was fixed for June 26. As the lawyer was busy in another court the bench dismissed the appeal and the decision was made ex-parte.

Rana Abdul Hamid, the lawyer who was representing Sarabjit, told media persons after the verdict, “I could not be present in the court as I am a government lawyer. Another lawyer, who was to represent him, was in some other court and before he could have reached there the petition was dismissed.”

Again, the lawyer filed a ‘reconsideration appeal’ before the Supreme Court but the registrar of the court refused to entertain the application as it was not maintainable.

During those days a new development occurred when an Indian citizen, Kashmir Singh, was released after 20 years of his imprisonment in Pakistani jails by the efforts of a human rights activist, Mr. Ansar Burney, former federal minister of human rights in the cabinet of General Musharraf. When Kashmir Singh went to India he declared that he was an Indian agent in Pakistan and was sent by the Indian intelligence agency, the RAW.

Kashmir Singh’s revelation completely destroyed Sarabjit Singh’s case and there was a move from religious and anti-India parties to hang him immediately and not to commute his death sentence. General Musharraf’s government fixed his execution for April 30, 2008 and issued the black warrant. However, because of pressure from human rights bodies, India and other international organizations, General Musharraf deferred his execution for a further 30 days. This was done so that the PPP-led government, which had just assumed power at the time, could review his case following India’s appeal for clemency. Since that time the government of Zardari – Gilani has stopped the execution in general for indefinite period.

To date his mercy petition is lying before the president of Pakistan and he currently lives in a four by six feet room known as a death cell. He had been there since 1991 and wears ankle chains and at all times. He is allowed a period of one hour for exercise daily and this is the only time he sees the outside world. His health has deteriorated and at present his eye sight is weak and he cannot walk properly due to infections in both legs.

Mr Awais Sheikh, a human rights lawyer and chairperson of Peace Initiative between India and Pakistan, has taken his case after the rejection of the mercy appeal from the Supreme Court in 2008. He visited the village of Sarabjit Singh in Amritsar, India, and collected information about him and Manjit Singh, allegedly the culprit of bomb blasts of 1990. He has been able to arrange two meetings in Pakistan with family members including his sister, wife and children.

Mr. Sheikh filed first mercy petition to the president of Pakistan on behalf of Sarabjit Singh in July 2009, the second one on February 14, 2010 and third and last on April 4, 2011 when the alleged culprit, Manjeet Singh was arrested in India on charges of cheating. Mr. Sheikh went to India and collected more information about Manjit Singh including his regular visits to Pakistan during the bomb blasts in 1990, his identification by ration card and his arrest in Canada after bomb blasts. He submitted all this information in the third and last mercy petition before the president of Pakistan.

No reply or acknowledgement from president house he has received yet.

He also filed a new application in the Supreme Court for reopening the case on March 6, 2011 after taking all evidences of involvement of Manjit Singh whose name was mentioned in the original FIR. This information also forwarded to President Zardari but, once again, no action has been yet taken to investigate the case.

Mr Awais Sheikh was also persecuted by the media and the anti-India lobby as a traitor and anti- Pakistan for helping Sarabjit Singh. He was asked to vacate his office by his landlord under pressure from the anti-India lobby and once his office was ransacked.

More than 100,000 persons from India including, prominent Muslim leaders, intellectuals, high profile personalities from the film industry, lawyers and activists of civil society, signed a petition for the release of Surabjit. The signatures were sent to president of Pakistan.

Who is Manjit Singh?

Manjit Singh operates under many aliases and was arrested in London and Canada for cheating, fraud and murder. His name was mentioned in the first information report (FIR) of four bomb blasts in three districts of Punjab province but after the arrest of Sarabjit Singh his name was amended in FIR with Manjit Singh alias Sarabjit Singh son of Mohanga Singh. According to the National Post of Canada, he is known as Manjit Singh Ratu, Manjit Singh aka (alias) Mumtaz Sharif Ratu, aka Mohammad Ratu, an Indian national and Punjabi journalist. He faced charges of fraud, terrorism, assassination and espionage.
Punjab Newsline, India, reported on December 17, 2010 that: “…….Manjit Singh Rattu infamous journalist who is wanted in many countries was arrested by Haryana police in a case of fraud registered against him in Panchkula. He lives under different names and is suspected of bomb blasts in Pakistan. The Sarbajit Singh of Bhikiwind was convicted in the name of Manjit Singh. Paper says Manjit Singh Rattu, he is also known a number of names – Manjit Singh M. Singh, A. Mann Mumtaz Sharif Rattu, Dr. A. S. Sandhu, Dr. M. S. Rattu, Mohammed Sharif Rattu, was some time back arrested near Toranto on two counts of fraud involving over US$ 10,000 by Peel regional police of Canada.”

After his arrest he confessed before the court in India that he had gone to Pakistan in 1983.

It is claimed by the his lawyer and family members that the actual man who did the blasts had visited Pakistan during the case proceedings in the trial court and had married with a Pakistani woman who was the daughter of an government officer and the then chief minister of Pakistan Punjab province had also attended his marriage but because of his marriage with the government officer’s daughter the authorities overlooked the identity of the groom.

The lawyer of Sarabjit Singh, Mr. Sheikh, informed the Supreme Court through his application for reconsideration of death sentence on March 6, 2011 that Manjeet Singh is an international swindler and is a member of an criminal syndicate. He is the real culprit behind the blasts in Pakistan. In 1990 when the bomb blasts took place the Manjeet Singh was present in Pakistan. The lawyer has attached evidence about proof of presence of Manjit Singh in Pakistan at the time of the blasts, his involvement in fraud and murder cases, his mysterious/suspicious activities in Pakistan and the affidavit of Syed Islam Shah (retired) deputy controller of Radio Pakistan confirming his meeting with Manjit Singh in 1990 with his application for reconsideration of the case.

The lawyer also attached the report Canadian police officer confirming his arrest on charges of murder and fraud cases in Canada and record of record published in international media.