Author: Rajeev Khanna
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: July 10, 2001
It was December 4 in 1971, a day
after the Indo-Pak war had started, that Captain Dalgir Singh Jamwal of
81 Field Regiment was captured by the Pakistani forces in the Chhamb sector.
Till date there has been no news of his whereabouts. His only daughter
Dr Nandita Jamwal who was just ten-months-old when he went missing is hoping
that the issue of Prisoners of War figures prominently in the forthcoming
summit between Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee.
"If the two sides can discus' the
release of fishermen, are the soldiers inferior to them in anyway. Why
not think about all those who continue to languish in Pakistan jails,"
asked Dr Nandita while talking to The Asian Age.
"We just have a hope that the two
will discuss the issue and do something about it. There is ample proof
that the Indian PoWs are still there. I have learnt that their former Prime
Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had written from jail that he used to hear
the cries of Indian soldiers who had been held captive there. We also came
to know front Mr Roop Lal Shaharia who had returned home last year after
spending 26 years, in various jails in Pakistan that he came across some
of them about six years back," she stated.
Dr Nandita who now live with her
husband Virender Kakkar who is a businessman in Subhash Nagar recalled,
"The war had started on December 3 and my father who was then 26 years
of age was captured on December 4, an hour before hi, duty was to finish.
Incidentally the day was his birthday. His colleagues who are now no more
told us that his eyes had been tied by the Pakistani soldiers who first
wanted to shoot hint but later decided otherwise and took him away.
She added, "After a gap of the stipulated
period the Government as per the rules assumed that he had died and started
giving my mother Kamlesh Jamwal, who has lived in Jammu since then, the
pensionary and other benefits. But we still believe and are convinced that
he is alive. Even as per the rules laid down in the Geneva Convention,
he has completed the time for which a POW is held captive. Why don't they
release hint now. What do they get by keeping him there?"
About the forthcoming summit she
said, "There has to be peace between the two neighbours as it is the common
man who has suffered over the decades and not the governments or regimes.
For example I went through a fatherless childhood for this country. There
are many others like me. My father was riot a smuggler or a criminal who
can be allowed to continue as a prisoner. He is a soldier. I just hope
the two sides resolve this issue."
