Faridkot (Punjab), April 30 (IANS) Surjit Singh, a Border Security Force (BSF) constable deployed on the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan, went missing in the 1971 war between the two neighbours. The Indian government declared him a martyr three years later. However, after a wait of more than 40 years, his family received information that stunned them — Surjit is alive.
Ansar Burney, Pakistan’s former federal minister for human rights, has now confirmed that Surjit is in a Pakistani jail, they say.
‘Many people told me to re-marry but I was confident of my husband’s return. I am happy that I am not a widow. Now I am waiting for the moment when I would actually see him,’ said Surjit’s wife Angrez Kaur, 61, who lives in Faridkot town.
Surjit’s 39-year-old son Amrik, a photographer, told IANS: ‘An Indian prisoner, Khushi Mohammad, a resident of Malerkotla, returned to India from Pakistan in 2004. He told us that my father was alive and was in a jail in Lahore. We then approached the Indian government and BSF, but did not receive any satisfactory reply from anywhere.’
Many Indian prisoners who returned from Pakistan told Kaur and Amrik that Surjit was alive and was lodged in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail.
After waiting for years for help from the Indian authorities, they sought Burney’s help.
‘We approached Burney a few months back through my friend Ajay Mehra. Burney had assured Ajay that he would meet (Pakistan President) Asif Ali Zardari and (Prime Minister) Yousaf Raza Gilani to discuss this matter,’ he added.
Mehra, a medical practitioner here, said: ‘Ansar Burney has traced Surjit in Lahore. He had called on Thursday (April 28) and told me about this.’
Amrik said: ‘We have met the deputy commissioner of Faridkot and he has promised us to write to the central government about the issue.’
According to official records, Surjit, a resident of Tehna village here, had gone missing Dec 3, 1971 night from Jaisalmer. He was declared a martyr in 1974, following which Kaur started receiving a pension and other benefits.
Kaur returned to her parents’ house here in 1971, with her one-month-old son. She had married Surjit in 1969.
‘I was only one-month-old at that time. My father was arrested by the Pakistani army and he was awarded death sentence. But later his sentence was converted into life imprisonment. He has completed his jail term in December 2010,’ Amrik told IANS.
His hopes are high after the Pakistan government recently released an Indian prisoner Gopal Dass, 50, who returned home after languishing in Pakistan’s jails for nearly 27 years.
Earlier in March 2008, another Indian prisoner, Kashmir Singh, who was on death row in Pakistan, was released after 35 years.
‘I am happy that my husband is alive and I will again see him. Despite severe pain in my knee joints, I am ready to walk up to any distance to receive him,’ said Kaur.
