Owais Mughal
An Indian national who was languishing in Pakistani jails for the past 34 years has been released on March 3, 2008. He was granted amnesty by the President of Pakistan. Amid a festive and emotional ceremony, he crossed the border into India today (March 4, 2008) and got reunited with his family. In my opinion this is a good humanitarian gesture by the Pakistani Government and should go a long way in upholding human rights and highlighting the plight of prisoners in both countries. Kashmir Singh’s wife Pramjeet Kaur and their two sons received him at the Wagah border.
We hope both countries ascertain the cases of more prisoners like him in their respective jails and those who are found languishing without trials for long time should be freed.
According to Dawn news of March 4, 2008:
Kashmir Singh was released from the Kot Lakhpat Central Jail on the orders of the President of Pakistan who granted him amnesty on an appeal of federal caretaker Minister for Human Rights Ansar Burni. According to the petition filed for his release by Mr Burni, he was arrested in 1973 on spying charges. He belongs to Hoshiarpur in Indian Punjab and has three children. Mr Singh will be handed over to the Indian authorities on Tuesday at the Wagah border. Mr Singh thanked the President and Mr Burni for his release and called for regular prisoner exchanges between India and Pakistan.
According to a news excerpt from Daily News
The minister Ansar Burni stated, “I request that Kashmir Singh who has already spent 34 long years in a death cell be released. We cannot give him two sentences, he has already spent 34 years behind the bars, and he should not be hanged but released to spend his remaining days with his family who he has not seen in all this long time. He is at present in Kot Lakhpat jail Lahore and waiting to see a free world soon.” This will also show to the people of India that our NGOs and we the Government of Pakistan are willing to release even those who they did not know about, Burney concluded.
Chronology of Events:
Kashmir Singh used to be a police constable in Amritsar. He was arrested in Pakistani city of Rawalpindi and remained detained in Pakistan since 1974. He was convicted and sentenced to death by the Court of Field General Court Martial, Commanding Officer 40 Field Regiment Artillery, Lahore Cantonment on April 8, 1977. The then President of Pakistan dismissed his mercy petition on March 14, 1978. He remained in the death cell for nearly 34 long years and in this time he never received a single visitor.
On March 3, 2008 Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice disposed of a petition seeking release of Indian prisoner Kashmir Singh, as the federal government’s law officer informed the court that President of Pakistan had already accepted his (Singh) mercy petition.
References:
1. The Daily Dawn, Pakistan
2. The Daily News, Pakistan
3. The Daily Times, Pakistan
4. Outlook India
5. Hindustan Times, India
6. Express India
7. Calcutta News, India
Photo Credits: The Daily Dawn, Reuters and Associated Press
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I think there is no point in criticising Mr Burni. Why should we criticize someone who is doing some good work even if it may seem not to be of any use to Pakistan at the moment.
If he takes up more controversial issues, he would be killed either by the Al-Qaeeda fundamentalists or be put behind bars if he opposed Mushharaf. It would be foolish to lose his life like many others . It is important to remain alive and smartly fight the evil. I think that by doing deeds like release of Kashmir singh, he is earning respect for Pakistan at the international level which would pay in the long run.
Freed Indian admits he was a spy
An Indian man released from a Pakistani prison on Monday after spending 35 years on death row has admitted that he was a spy.
Kashmir Singh also criticized the Indian government which he said did nothing for him or his family while he was in jail.
He said he would not give details of his detention in case it jeopardized other Indians in jail in Pakistan.
He was sentenced to death in 1973, for spying in Pakistan.
‘Not a penny’
“I did the duties assigned to me as a spy,” Mr Singh said on Friday, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reports.
“After my arrest… successive (Indian) governments did nothing for me,” he told journalists in the city of Chandigarh. “The government after my arrest did not bother to spend a single penny for my family.”
Mr Singh appeared reluctant to give many details about his imprisonment although he did say he had been chained up for 17 years of his detention.
His release was spearheaded by Ansar Burney, a social worker and cabinet minister who tracks people lost in Pakistan’s jail system.
India and Pakistan have jailed hundreds of each other’s soldiers and civilians during times of hostility.
Pakistani officials said that while Mr Singh’s release was unconditional, they hoped it would lead to further prisoner exchanges.
‘Hell on earth’
Ansar Burney discovered Mr Singh on a recent trip to a jail in Lahore and persuaded Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to revoke his death sentence and order his release.
Mr Singh was a former policeman who had become a trader in electronic goods.
He was arrested in the city of Rawalpindi in 1973 and convicted of spying.
Pakistan and India frequently arrest each other’s citizens, often accusing them of straying across the border - some are treated as spies.
Mr Burney is currently the government’s caretaker minister for human rights.
Mr Burney said last week that Mr Singh had been held in a condemned prisoner’s cell for most of the time since his conviction and had become mentally ill.
He said that he was first informed about the case several years ago by members of the Indian community in London.
But he was unable to locate Mr Singh, despite visiting more than 20 jails across the country in connection with his campaign for prison reforms and prisoners’ rights.
The minister said Mr Singh had not received a single visitor or seen the open sky and, like other condemned prisoners, was locked in an overcrowded cell for more than 23 hours a day, in conditions which the minister described as “hell on Earth”.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2008/03/07 18:07:43 GMT
In exchange of Kashmir Singh, Indians sent the dead body of Khalid Mehmood, a cricket fan who went to see the series in 2005. He died after getting worst physical assaults for more than 2 years and was locked up in a 3 X 3 foot jail quarter.
Today Musharaf’s illegal government stopped Ansar Burney to enter Khalid Mehmood’s house.
What a shame!
When Musharaff visited Agra, he promised to release any Defence personnel in Pakistani jails and allowed some indian army personnel and their families to search the jails.Nothing happenned. Now suddenly this kashmir singh props up.
Spying is dangerous business and both countries disown their people when caught. Even today the Pakistani army refuses to acknolwldge the 24 bodies of Frontier constabulary killed in kargil action.
Kashmir singh says he knew atleast 150 still in pakistani jails. i donot know how many are in Indian jails. Hope they have some dialogue on this matter between the two countries for exchange.
To complement the verse posted by Viqar
http://tinyurl.com/3yh7sv (Column by Javed Choudhry)
Maybe Ansar Burni, the showboating turncoat, can get the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Ch., and the CJ’s family their freedom next? The CJ’s youngest son is a special child and he has been denied medical attention. Doesn’t Mr. Burni feel that he needs to do something for Balaj Iftikhar as well or is all his concern for humanity limited to Kashmir Singh? Why doesn’t Mr. Burni the human rights minister do something for the judges and lawyers of his country who were being illegally detained, beaten like animals on the streets of Pakistan by the minister’s government?
Khairaat ghar say shuroo hoti hay! It’s easy to score some brownie points by digging some poor fellow, setting him free, getting a free trip to India and all the media adulation. However, it’s time for some real action, Burni sahib.
It’s sad that you were respected once upon a time and you gave away your integrity, reputation, respect and dignity for a lousy interim ministership. Shame on you! Start your service to human rights by protecting the human rights of Pakistanis! Once I thought your were a great humanitarian like Edhi sahib but you are nothing more than a protocol and attention hungry showpony and a hypocrite. I will not support any charitable causes if you are associated with them.
In this game, integrity is everything and you have NONE left!
Very interesting news indeed! Congratulations to Kashmir Singh and his family for the long awaited family reunion; he was lucky that he survived the cruelty and the torture he must have been subjected to in the early days of his imprisonment.
On the other hand what is important is the dubious role of Ansar Burney in this affair. I thought Adil or Owais or someone else would write about him and about NGO mafia on this board.
Few points to ponder on:
1. NGOs (a Civil Society member) are funded by charitable organisations and individuals; almost all of them, for their developmental goal(s) seek to promote democracy (at least sloganeering) and pretend to work for the alleviation of poverty. Put it differently they are against the dictators and their dictatorships.
The question that arises from the above is what the hell MR ANSAR BURNEY is doing as a caretaker minister in the worst dictatorial regime of the history of Pakistan? Does he have any shame? Has he lost common sense and what about his principles and the philosophy behind these CIVIL SOCIEY ORGANISATIONS?
2. Thousands of people, both religious and nationalists, are missing from across Pakistan!
Can someone show a single statement made by Mr Burney about the extra-judicial and illegal detentions of thousands of poor Pakistanis who have got nothing to do anything with terrorism or any other anti-state activities. Most of the Baloch and Sindhi people have been demanding provincial autonomy and not secession or break up of Pakistan – something that even the constitution of 1973 has provision for. So why kidnap these men and women off the streets and put them into grave like cells for many years without allowing them any recourse to legal process? But Mr Burney don’t you see that? Or were you interested to grab the opportunity of becoming a care taker minister and that you did by abusing the platform of the civil society and the by funds which were provided by men and women of the free world for the development of their fellow human beings in Pakistan and elsewhere!
3. In Today’s Khabrain Newspaper I read a very funny news report regarding the opportunistic and naive statement of Mr Burney regarding Chief Justice’s detention when he says that: “If Iftikhar Chaudhry and his family members were not released, I would resign”! He must be very stupid to take us for a ride and his statement shows Civil Society sector has been infested with many strange people who have got no moral and legal values!
How on earth he just realised that Chief justice was still under house arrest and why is he making this statement now when only a couple of days are left before he will be kicked out from his post anyway by the new Govt!
Unfortunately he is not the only one who has been abusing his position of a civil society activist and that is with the access he has to millions of funds as well; there is another guy in the Balochistan’s Caretaker Govt who has been inducted as minister for Education and there are very serious allegations against his abuse of public money and other resources that he was entrusted with. These two guys are clearly abusing the Civil Society sector for their own personal benefit. I have already decided that I will never ever give any money to these NGOs; I simply can’t trust them anymore!
I hope someone will write a better review of the state of affair of Pakistani NGOs. In the mean while you are requested to google ‘NGO mafia’ and read dozens of articles about these corrupt individuals and organisations.
I think the verse of Ahmed Faraz posted by Viqar below has hit the nail on the head.
I have been trying to follow this Ansar Burney character and many dubious issues are coming up. The most astounding part is his connection with Zia-ul-Haq. Apparently he took up a case during the Zia era, to please him, that women should not be allowed to become the head of the state of Pakistan!