India
Today: New Delhi: Friday, 22 August 2014.
As many as 54
Indian soldiers, who were captured as Prisoners of Wars during battles of 1965
and 1971, are still believed to be in Pakistani jails, according to an RTI
reply.
The Defence
Ministry gave this information in response to an RTI which also sought details
about the steps the government has taken to bring back these PoWs.
The Defence
Ministry was asked, under provisions of Right to Information Act, why these
soldiers could not be released from the rival jails in 1971 itself despite the
Pakistan forces surrendering then.
"The
issue has been continuously raised with Pakistan, but they have never accepted
the presence of Indian soldiers in their jails. In 2007, a delegation of
relatives of these PoWs made a tour of these jails but could not confirm the
physical presence of these Indian Pows there," it said in its reply.
A copy of the
RTI was also forwarded to the Ministry of External Affairs by the Defence
Ministry to seek its response.
"There
are 54 prisoners of war jailed in Pakistan. Six of them, Lt V K Azad, Gunner
Madan Mohan, Gunner Sujaan Singh, Flight Lt Babul Guha, Flying Officer Tejinder
Singh Sethi and Sq Ldr Dev Prasad Chatterjee, were captured in the 1965 war
while the other 48 were imprisoned in the 1971 war," the MEA said in its
response.
A Tri-Service
Committee has been formed in the ministry of defence to look into the matter,
it said.
Neither of
the two ministries responded to the question that why were these PoWs not freed
in 1971 despite Pakistan losing the war.
During the
1971 IndoPak war, India had captured 93,000 Pakistani soldiers. This was the
biggest capture of PoWs since the Second World War. Later after an agreement in
1973 all of them were released.
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