Cold blooded murder of Chamel Singh, the civilian Indian prisoner in Pakistan’s Kot Lakhpat on 15 January has once again proved that Pakistan has no intention of dealing with us according to the established norms of international relationship. Chamel Singh, a civilian belonging to village Bhalwal Molu, Pargwal of Akhnoor Tehsil went missing from his home on 22 December 2008. In October 2012, the family received a letter from him in which he had stated that he was in Kot Lakhpat prison in Pakistan. On the basis of this letter the family took up the matter with the Indian High Commission in Pakistan. But then it was informed in January 2013 that Chamel Singh aged 55 had died in Kot Lakhpat jail and his dead body was lying in Jinnah Hospital morgue.
Much bungling seems to have happened in this tragic case. Pakistani authorities say that Chamel Singh, the Indian prisoner, died natural death in Jinnah Hospital. They claim to have installed judicial enquiry into the circumstances leading to his death. The judge had almost completed the report on his death but was waiting for the biopsy report, a must in such cases. But biopsy could be done only in the presence of an Indian official from the High Commission. The authorities claim that nobody from the Indian High Commission had come to be present at the biopsy and hence return of the body had been delayed.
But this contention is repudiated by the reports which have trickled from the statement of an internee in Kot Lakhpat. Tahseen Khan, a Christian lawyer who has completed 42 months of imprisonment in Kot Lakhpat along with 33 other Indian civilian prisoners said on release from jail that Chamel Singh was brutally beaten by Pakistani guards of the jail and other Pakistani prisoners when there was a brawl and this caused his death. When Chamel Singh’s family came to know about his death in the jail, they contacted the Indian High Commission in Lahore who in an email told them that arrangements were being made to handover the body to the family at Wagah border in Amritsar. The family requested the High Commission to hand over the body at Suchetgarh border point instead of Wagah a it would be convenient for them to receive it there. So far the Indian High Commission has not responded to their request.
This being the background of brutality to which Pakistanis are resorting again and again, the family has very rightly asked how come the dead body of a Pakistani soldier killed in Lam area of Nowshehra, when he had intruded into Indian side, was handed over to Pakistani authorities within 24 hours and with full honours whereas the dead body of Chamel Singh, an Indian civilian who died under mysterious circumstances in Kot Lakhpat, has not been returned although more than a month has passed by.
This event raises many questions that need to be answered. In the first place we are told that India and Pakistan have been talking a lot bilaterally on many things including return of prisoners. Nearly 33 Indian nationals are reported to be languishing in Pakistani prison of Kot Lakhpat. There might be Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails also. Why their bilateral talks do not make a time-frame for release and return of these prisoners, or at least of those against whom there are no criminal cases except that they have crossed the border by mistake. We have a long IB and LoC with Pakistan and the chances of people crossing over to one or the other sides by mistake are many. A mechanism needs to be developed to dispose off such cases within a time frame. It is inhuman to make them suffer for a mistake for such a long time and under very trying conditions. Secondly, the Indian High Commission in Lahore shall have to explain its role in the matter. Why has it not kept the family informed of the developments in the case or at least why has it not replied to their request of transfer of body at Suchetgarh. Similarly, the High Commission has also to answer why it did not depute an official in whose presence autopsy would be conducted on the body and why it gave chance to Pakistan to delay the process? These questions will come up and the Indian side whether the EA Ministry or the Indian High Commission or the HM shall have to answer. The blood of an Indian citizen has not to be treated so cheap. There is resentment among the people in Akhnoor on this issue and an explanation is due.
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