April Issue 2008

Indian squadron leader Veer Pratap Singh was caught on suspicion of spying in Lahore when he came to visit the love of his life — Zara Hayat Khan, a Pakistani national. Determined not to disclose the identity of his love, Veer spent the following 22 years in a Pakistani jail before being released thanks to the efforts of Saamiya Siddiqui, a local lawyer. Both the lovers finally united and lived happily ever after.

Such happy endings are a hallmark of Bollywood. Thus it should come as no surprise that this heartwarming story was a brief synopsis of the Bollywood blockbuster VeerZara. The realities of life are usually much harsher.

Occasionally, however, life imitates the big screen. Kashmir Singh, a young police constable in Amritsar, married Pramjeet Kaur against the wishes of his family, had three kids and was leading a happy life before being captured in Pakistan in 1974. He was found guilty of spying and given a death sentence by a Field General Court Martial on April 8, 1977. His appeal for mercy was later rejected by then President General Zia-ul-Haq on March 14, 1978. Though the death sentence was never carried out, Singh was confined to a death cell in Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, waiting to be hanged. But lady luck finally smiled on Singh when he was granted amnesty by President Pervez Musharraf on a mercy petition moved by Ansar Burney, then caretaker federal minister for human rights.

There are a large number of Kashmir Singhs on both sides of the border, who have been languishing in jails for a long time — the majority even after the completion of their official sentence. The recent internationally publicised event of Kashmir Singh’s release brought to the spotlight the plight of a large number of Indian and Pakistani prisoners suffering in the jails of both countries.

According to Abdul Hai of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), “These prisoners have always been treated as a political football by both the governments. They capture each other’s people to balance the numbers.” Official figures state that there are 450 Pakistanis in Indian jails, while 500 Indians are languishing in Pakistani jails. Since 2003, Pakistan has released 2,452 Indian prisoners (208 civilian prisoners and 2,244 fishermen), while India has released only 659 Pakistanis (299 civilian prisoners and 360 fishermen). Unconfirmed reports suggest that there are 44 Indian prisoners in Kot Lakhpat jail, while as many as 48 Pakistani prisoners are languishing in jails across the Indian Punjab, even after completing their prison terms.

The animosity between the two countries has turned this humanitarian issue into a political problem. The majority of the detainees are captured for minor immigration violations or inadvertently crossing the border. Once captured, the prisoners are left to suffer in awful conditions. They are rarely given consular access, which is mandatory under international conventions signed by both Pakistan and India. This inaccessibility to any sort of legal aid further diminishes their chances of receiving justice.

All the positives to come out of Kashmir Singh’s release, in terms of cooperation between India and Pakistan, was undone by the arrival of the dead body of a Pakistani, Khalid Mehmood, from an Indian jail on March 10. His family termed the Indian jail authorities “heartless,” alleging that they tortured Mehmood to death. Brig (retd.) Rao Abid, director of Vulnerable Prisoners Project of the HRCP, says, “I have seen them both [India and Pakistan]. They are devils but we are no less.”

Meanwhile, in another unfortunate development, on March 3 President Pervez Musharraf rejected the mercy petition of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who was handed down a death sentence in 1991. It caught the attention of the world media again and the Pakistani government was pressurised to review his mercy petition. Singh was accused of being the mastermind behind the 1990 bombings in Lahore. But he and his family always claim that he accidentally strayed into Pakistani territory. Abid, who has been involved with this case for the last few years, terms the case as “unfortunate.” He adds, “We sent a mercy petition to the president earlier and are also working on another.”

Under Article 45 of the Constitution, the president of Pakistan has the power to commute a death sentence to life imprisonment. On March 20, President Musharraf postponed Singh’s execution, which was to be carried out on April 1, for a month. But the day coincided with the death of Indian fisherman Lakshman in the Malir Jail’s hospital. The officials ruled out the possibility of torture as the cause of the death and termed it “natural” as he was admitted into the hospital after complaining of stomach pain.

However, the president’s decision was followed by the release of a 30-year-old Pakistani prisoner, Jamal Qureshi, from an Indian jail. Qureshi was charged with spying and circulating fake currency notes and spent two years in jail. A relieved Qureshi was handed over to the Pakistani authorities at the Wagah border before he left for his hometown of Rohri to meet his mother. Unfortunately, his mother had died three months before his release.

The decades-long enmity between the two neighbours has implanted the seeds of suspicion so strongly that both automatically consider all detainees to be spies. “Not all of them are accused of spying. But the process mostly starts with that suspicion,” believes Abid. Most of the time the usual sentence is not more than a year, but, as Abid says, if you are caught in the “web of India and Pakistan” you are left to “rot and rot” unless someone comes to your rescue.

During the last two years there have been frequent meetings between the Indian Border Security Force and Pakistani Rangers to discuss the issue. “They always come out very proudly to claim that there will be no delay in the release of prisoners if they are caught inadvertently. But the situation remains the same,” says Abid.

Interestingly, fishermen from both Pakistan and India are the major victims of this state of affairs. Blamed for straying into each other’s territorial waters, these poor souls are caught by patrolling security forces. Their boats, catch and other equipment are seized by the authorities of both countries. Currently, around 145 Indian boats are in the custody of the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency and are anchored in a creek between Manora and Bhit. “They also tried to auction these boats but as their condition had deteriorated they couldn’t sell them,” says Muhammad Ali Shah, president of the Pakistan Fisherfolks Forum (PFF). According to official figures, there are currently 14 Pakistani fishermen held in India, while 300 Indians are detained in our jails. The majority of them are lodged in Landhi jail, Karachi. Most of these detainees are charged with illegally crossing the border but some are accused of colluding in terror activities as well. “These are the official figures but there might be an equal number whose identity has not been confirmed as yet,” says Saeed Baloch, secretary general of the PFF. During the last repatriation on August 14, 2007, 40 Pakistani and 387 Indian fishermen were united with their families.

The real dispute between the two countries is over the control of Sir Creek. This 96-kilometre strip of water divides the Kutch region in Gujarat, India and the Sindh region in Pakistan. The border at Sir Creek is disputed by India and Pakistan as each claims a larger portion of the sea extending outwards from the creek as their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). “As there is no visible demarcation, the fishermen of both the countries, looking for more catch, especially prawns, would mistakenly enter each other’s waters and end up in jail for an indefinite period,” says Shah. He further adds that both countries treat these innocent people as “prisoners of war.”

There is this general perception among the people that prisoners on both sides face dreadful conditions and are routinely abused. However, the pictures of a hale and hearty Kashmir Singh on television, after his release, came as a surprise for most of the viewers as it contradicted this common belief. Abdul Hai of the HRCP, disputing the conventional wisdom, describes the conditions on both sides as “similar.” “It is mere propaganda by both sides as the majority of those returned are in satisfactory condition. We have interviewed a large number of them and never received any complaint from them. In fact, the jail conditions in India are comparatively better — if not great.”

However, the PFF describes the conditions of jails on both sides as pathetic but feels that the overall condition of those who return to their homeland, from both countries, is satisfactory. “People claim that the prisoners are tortured inhumanely and some of them even lose their mental balance. But those actually belong to another category of prisoners and are not fisherfolk, as none of them, from either side, ever lost his mental balance,” claims Baloch.

The HRCP, working in close liaison with the PFF, carried out a number of visits to the Karachi jail to meet with the Indian fishermen detained there. However, since 2000 they have not made a single visit due to the reluctance shown by the interior ministry of Pakistan. “We used to provide some essentials, including clothes and blankets, to these poor people but are no longer granted permission to do so,” says Baloch. Over the years, the HRCP has provided support and help to a large number of prisoners from both countries, including fishermen, in the shape of repatriation and getting them in touch with their families. However, Abid is not very happy with the flow of information from the government, which he feels is “very restricted” as they never “share the details.” “It is not a nuclear secret which you have to keep under wraps,” says Abid. “We only ask for the figures, time and again, so one can know exactly how many prisoners there are in both countries.”

However, the biggest loophole in the entire process is found during the confirmation of prisoners by both the countries, also known as the official lists. “Both the countries hide the correct figures, which is a clear violation of human rights and we strongly condemn it,” says Shah. So only those fortunate prisoners who make it to the official list are released, while the rest are left to rot. “Within a few months, both countries capture an equal number of people again,” contends Shah.

Sharing his thoughts on this issue, Abid says, “We have always demanded that both countries make a protocol to inform the diplomatic representative of the other country about the arrests — the particulars of the prisoners, their charges and the places of detention so the families can be informed promptly.” But the authorities hardly ever respond to queries and, even when they do, the process is very slow.

Unfortunately, amidst all this, we seem to forget the agony of the hundreds of fathers, mothers, wives and children who suffer along with their imprisoned loved ones. As the majority belong to the lower income group, a visit to another country is next to impossible. And Abid feels that even if someone makes the arrangements for the visit they fail to get a visa. “You cannot get a visa if you want to visit your relative or a friend in a jail. The application would automatically be rejected, which is a stark reminder of our inhumane attitudes.” In most cases, the absence of the sole bread-winner devastates the families. Links between the families completely break down, as even the letters written to each other are lost in the hierarchical setup functioning on both sides.

Ironically, both countries have shown very little concern not only for each other’s prisoners but also for their own prisoners stuck in another country. Kashmir Singh’s release was considered a humanitarian gesture that could highlight the plight of prisoners and uphold human rights. The developments following his release, however, seem to have hampered the process for a while. But, there is a strong need to ascertain the cases of more prisoners, like Kashmir Singh, in jails on both sides — many of whom do not ‘exist’ officially. It is high time we treated the whole issue of the release of prisoners in a humane manner by emphasising compassion and humanity. While we are moved by the plight of our prisoners in Indian jails, we must give equal importance to the release of Indian prisoners in our custody.