Srinagar: Thirty six years ago a young Vinod Sahni, crossed the Line of Control as Agent 22. Even today standing at the Line of Control (LoC) brings back memories. Memories from 36 years ago come rushing back to Sahni at the Suchetgarh border. "I was arrested near the tower as I was returning from Pakistan. I have no memory of what happened next but remember being tortured. I didn't know whether I was dead or alive," says Sahni.
After months as an active spy Sahni was captured and given 11 years in a Pakistan jail. "We were shackled, made to clean floors and then beaten as well," he adds. When he returned, Sahni found his recruiters had ignored his family.
Former BSF constable Krishan Lal Bali was once a 120-kilograms six-footer but 14 years in a Pakistan jail have left him paralysed, weighing just 37 kilograms, wishing life would end. "I hope death comes to me early and takes me closer to my wife and son," says Bali.
Bali is most hurt by the neglect of his own people - poverty claimed the lives of his wife and son. "I begged everyone from the Chief Minster to the Prime Minister for help, but my pleas were ignored. I was no smuggler, I had gone to Pakistan for my nation," says Bali....
more
08:58 AM, May 15, 2013
Srinagar: The hardline Hurriyat Conference on Saturday demanded strengthening of security apparatus inside Indian and Pakistani jails to stop murderous assaults on inmates. "It is the responsibility of both countries to ensure safety of prisoners in their jails. We appeal for strengthening of security in the jails across the border and an immediate end to murderous assaults by prisoners on each other," Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani told reporters...
07:30 PM, May 04, 2013
The Jammu and Kashmir government said on Wednesday it will approach the Foreign Ministry to seek the post-mortem report of Indian prisoner Chamel Singh, who died in a Pakistani jail. He was allegedly tortured to death in the prison, as claimed by some media reports. ...
02:45 PM, Mar 27, 2013
New Delhi: Ahead of the talks between the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan, the Government on Thursday said 74 Indian defence personnel, including 54 prisoners of war, are believed to be in Pakistani jails since 1971, but Islamabad has not acknowledged it so far. "As on August 16, 2012, as many as 233 Indian civilian prisoners, 81 Indian fishermen and 74 missing defence personnel, including 54 PoWs, are believed...
08:45 PM, Aug 23, 2012
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has dismissed a PIL seeking direction to the Centre to take steps for setting free more than 50 Indians lodged in Pakistan jails, saying "the government of India continues its effort to release them". Dismissing two PILs filed by Madangopal Khushiram Paul, an advocate and human rights activist, seeking the release of Indian prisoners and also compensation for them, a bench of Acting Chief...
08:55 AM, Jul 15, 2012
New Delhi: Indian death row prisoner in Pakistan Sarabjit Singh has filed a fresh appeal to President Asif Ali Zardari seeking mercy on the occasion of that country's Independence Day on August 14, his lawyer Awais Sheikh has said. Sheikh, who met Sarabjit in Lahore jail on Thursday, in an email to the prisoner's daughter Swapandeep, said that her father had signed the letter addressed to Zardari for his mercy...
01:11 PM, Jul 13, 2012
New Delhi: As celebrations continued over Surjeet Singh's return from Pakistan to India, efforts picked up to bring back another Indian prisoner from Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh. However, Pakistani human rights activist Ansar Burney admitted that the government there is under pressure from religious extremists who are against Sarabjit's release. Sarabjit's family is running from pillar to post to expedite his release. On Thursday, the family met External Affairs Minister SM...
07:40 AM, Jun 29, 2012
Hours after announcing that Sarabjit Singh would be released, Islamabad confirmed that it's not him, but another Indian prisoner Surjeet Singh who is being sent home. ...
11:09 PM, Jun 27, 2012
Islamabad: What should have been the release of an Indian death row prisoner has turned into an "international embarrassment" for the Pakistan government following the mix-up over the identity of two Indian nationals currently in a Pakistani jail. Hours after reports emerged yesterday that Pakistan was to release Sarabjit Singh, convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for alleged involvement in a string of bombings, Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar clarified...
03:40 PM, Jun 27, 2012
New Delhi: Poor communication among Pakistani authorities has been blamed for the Sarabjit-Surjeet fiasco on Wednesday. CNN-IBN has confirmed that Pakistan Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar had named Surjeet Singh as the person who was being released from Pakistani prison at 7.30 pm on Tuesday. But neither Babar, nor the Pakistan government tried to issue a quick denial to correct the information in the media. In fact it took up to...
01:26 PM, Jun 27, 2012
Sarabjit's sister, who has been leading the fight for his release, says they are disappointed but are still holding on to hope. ...
11:07 AM, Jun 27, 2012
Lawyer Awais Sheikh is hopeful that Pakistan will release his other client Sarabjit Singh soon. ...
11:03 AM, Jun 27, 2012
Surjeet Singh has been languishing in the same Pakistani prison as Sarabjit for 3 decades. ...
10:57 AM, Jun 27, 2012
New Delhi: There was a cruel twist of fate for Indian prisoner in Pakistan Sarabjit Singh and his family. Hours after announcing that he would be released, Islamabad has confirmed that it's not him, but another Indian prisoner Surjeet Singh who is being sent home. However, the big question is whether the faux pas by Pakistan is really a genuine mistake or a mischief. Surjeet had already served his life...
10:35 AM, Jun 27, 2012
Sarabjit Singh's sister Dalbir appealed to the Indian government to intervene after the Pakistan faux pas. ...
09:38 AM, Jun 27, 2012
New Delhi: There was a cruel twist for Indian prisoner in Pakistan Sarabjit Singh and his family. Hours after announcing that he would be released, Islamabad has confirmed that it's not him, but another Indian prisoner Surjeet Singh who is being sent home. It was a major faux pas by the government, which means for now Sarabjit Singh will not be released. He has been in jail for the past...
07:32 AM, Jun 27, 2012
Islamabad: Shakeel Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track down Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, has refused to eat meals provided by the jail authorities in Peshawar fearing he may be poisoned. Sources told Geo News, Afridi has refused to eat prison food, and that on his demand, prison authorities have provided him with essential items and cooking utensils so that he could prepare his own food. Afridi...
12:38 PM, Jun 03, 2012
Islamabad: As many as 143 of the 384 inmates who fled a prison in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province following an audacious Taliban attack are back in jail, an official said. Provincial Home Secretary Azam Khan told the Voice of America that out of 384 prisoners who fled, 108 have voluntarily returned while 35 had been re-arrested. Taliban militants struck at the Bannu jail on April 15 and freed the prisoners....
03:47 PM, Apr 22, 2012
Samastipur: In what seems to be a cruel twist of fate, a man returned home to his village in Bihar after languishing in a Pakistani jail for 35 years only to find that nothing is the same anymore. He even has no family left. Singheshwar Chaudhary has returned home only to find out that his wife, thinking him to be a dead man, married another man long ago. Singheshwar, who...
01:58 PM, Apr 16, 2012
New Delhi: Leading rights activist Ansar Burney claims that an Indian prisoner of war - captured during the 1971 war - has been found in a Pakistani jail. Burney says the PoW is Surjit Singh who was captured in 1971 and his jail term ended in December 2010. Burney says Surjit Singh is lodged in Quetta jail. Burney also says that he has sent petitions to Pakistan President Asif Zardari...
10:12 AM, Apr 30, 2011
