Mohammad Jamil
Las t week, Pakistan had handed over the body of Indian prisoner Kirpal Singh, who died due to heart attack in Lahore jail. His family members alleged that his body bore injury marks. Contrary to the claims, the medical board, which conducted the post-mortem examination after his body was brought back to India, said there were no external or internal injury marks on the body. Dr. Ashok Sharma, head of the three-member medical board, told the media after the post-mortem examination that the cause of death has not been established yet. He added: “In the post-mortem examination, it was found that there was no external or internal injury on the body. Post-mortem of this body has already been done (in Pakistan) because stitches were present on the body and the head…I can say with 100 percent accuracy that the wound marks which are inflicted during life cannot be removed,” which falsified the claim of the Indian media.
Pakistani authorities attributed his death to heart attack, but his family alleged he was murdered in prison, as he was the sole witness to the murder of Sarabjit Singh in the Lahore prison. Kirpal Singh, the family maintained, had inadvertently crossed into Pakistan and was arrested and charged with spying by Pakistani authorities. Kirpal Singh, a former serviceman, a spy and a terrorist, was lodged in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat prison since 1992. He was convicted for terror attacks inside Pakistan and was sentenced to death, which was later converted to 20 years’ imprisonment. Anyhow, he died of heart failure. It has to be mentioned that a Pakistani prisoner in Indian jail Sanaullah Ranjay was savagely beaten in an Indian jail in April 2013. Doctors treating Sanaullah Ranjay at a government hospital in Chandigarh had said he died of multiple organ failure after suffering severe head injuries in an attack at a prison in Jammu.
The chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state, had announced that an inquiry would be held into the May 3 attack on Ranjay, calling it a “matter of deep regret”. But Pakistani officials had said they would not be satisfied by an Indian inquiry into the “extra-judicial killing”, calling instead for an international-level investigation. Ranjay’s death had come exactly a week after Sarabjit Singh, an Indian who was being held in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat prison, died as a result of an assault by inmates. Of course, he was convicted on espionage charges. After Ranjay’s death, the then prime minister of Pakistan had called upon the government of India to ensure the safety and security of all Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails. The then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah had promised that those responsible for Ranjay’s death would be held accountable. But that promise remained unfulfilled.
In March 2008, Kashmir Singh, who was freed from Pakistani jail after 35 years, had admitted that he was an Indian spy and did his best to serve the country, but deplored that successive governments at the Centre did nothing for his family. “After my arrest in 1974, the successive governments did nothing for my family. I did the duty assigned to me as a spy…but the government after my arrest did not bother to spend a single penny for my family,” a calm and composed looking Singh, who was accompanied by his wife Paramjeet Kaur, told reporters in Chandigarh. Asked what he would like to say for some other people who are working in similar kind of professions, Singh said “I was a spy and did my duty…about others I will not comment…I am not President of the country to give reply to such queries”. One would not know as to why he was released on humanitarian grounds.
Instead of reciprocating the gesture, India had sent the dead bodies of two Pakistani prisoners, which had shocked people of Pakistan. Watching media coverage of a hale and healthy Indian spy Kashmir Singh going back to his country amid warm farewell with ‘protocal’, and receiving the dead bodies of Pakistani prisoners in return, whose body parts were missing, was heart-rending not only for the families of deceased prisoners but also for the whole nation. This was the reason that the people of Pakistan were quite critical about government’s decision of deferring the execution of another suspected Indian terrorist, Sarabjit Singh, who was alleged to be involved in 1991 bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed 14 innocent people. He was awarded the death penalty by the Anti-Terrorist Court in 1991. His sentence was upheld by the High Court and later by the Supreme Court.
The government of Pakistan was inclined to show leniency towards his case on ‘humanitarian ground’ but could not do so due to the people of Pakistan’s demand for stern action against him. His jail inmates attacked him because they believed that he will be released. If the government of Pakistan is enthusiastic to show the gesture of goodwill or magnanimity to improve the relations between the two countries, then it is also incumbent upon India to reciprocate rather than sending the dead bodies of Pakistani prisoners. According to a report, there are more than 45 Pakistani prisoners lodged in Indian jails living under the shadow of fear and waiting for an early release and reunion with their families like Kashmir Singh. Pakistani media and human rights organizations should initiate campaign for the release of Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails in the same way as the campaigns of Kashmir Singh and Sarabjit Singh were run successfully.
