Author: Shaheen P. Parshad
Publications: The Indian Express
Date: May 30, 2001
More than 100 Indian prisoners are
still languishing in Pakistani jails, some of them for 25 years, where
they are being subjected to torture and inhuman conditions.
This was stated here by a visibly
sick Pawan Kumar, a resident of Jammu, who was repatriated today along
with six other Indian prisoners. In exchange, India also returned
seven Pakistani prisoners.
"Indian prisoners in Pakistan are
kept in separate cells and given food barely enough to keep body
and soul together," disclosed Kumar. Ishaq Masih, a resident of Gurdaspur
who was in Pakistan jail for two years, said he was not aware of the conditions
in jails in general but where he stayed were abysmal, he disclosed.
Ishaq, who was in Lahore and Narowal prisons in Pakistan, said that the
inmates were often beaten up by the jail staff.
The conditions of all the seven
prisoners handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) by the Pakistani
Rangers was miserable.
The other prisoners who returned
to India, besides Pawan Kumar and Ishaq, were Kukka, Salauddin, Dil Mohammed,
Kiki all hailing from Jammu and Dev Raj from Sri Ganganagar.
The prisoners handed over to Pakistan
included Munir Ahmed, Mohammed Nasir, Gaffar Ali, Zafar Iqbal, Maqbool
Ahmed, Maqsood Ahmed and Mohammed Ramzan, Mohammed Nasir, a Pakistani prisoner
said that he stumbled into the Indian side seven years ago at Rajouri border
where he was caught by the Indian soldiers.
Gaffar Ali Khan, another Pakistani
prisoner said he entered through the Gurdaspur border. Mohammed Ramzan
and Maqbool Ahmed crossed into India from Dera Baba Nanak border and had
to spend two years in prison.
