Pakistans Peace Initiative Indian Spy Kashmir Singh freed after 35 years in Pakistan jail
Local Tuesday, March 4th, 20084th March 2008 Pakistani Authorities on Monday released Indian citizen Kashmir Singh from
Central Jail Lahore after he spent 35 years in various jails of
Pakistan, most of them on death row.
The Interior Ministry
issued the order for his release on Monday, after President Pervez
Musharraf approved his mercy petition. The 60-year-old former Indian
policeman was handed over to the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust at 7.30pm
amid tight security. The trust will take Singh to India by road through
the Wagah border today (Tuesday). Singh’s wife Paramjit Kaur is likely
to welcome him on the India side of the border.
Caretaker
Minister for Human Rights Ansar Burney said Singh was arrested for
spying during a business trip to Rawalpindi in 1973, and convicted and
sentenced to death by a military court in Lahore. The government had
stayed his execution in the late 1970s, he said, and that Singh’s case
then languished. Singh was taken to the Dera Sahib temple near Lahore
Fort after his release, and unconfirmed reports said he was taken to
Lashmi Chowk for dinner. A source said he would stay at Avari Hotel on Monday
night. nadia usman
Indian citizen Kashmir Singh, who was released on Monday after 35 years
in Pakistani jails, said he spent his days with the hope to meet his
family once again.
“I am thankful to all the Pakistani people who worked
for my release,” he told a press conference after his release.
Singh said Pakistani law enforcers
and investigators did not torture him and other prisoners treated him
with respect and called him ‘uncle’. “No one contacted me from India,
so far I had received only a single letter from my family after 14
years of my arrest,” he said. During press conference, Caretaker Human
Rights Minister Ansar Burney called Singh’s wife Param Jeet Kaur for
the couple to talk to each other. Kashmir Singh urged the Indian government to take same step as Pakistan and set free pakistani prisoners. After his release, talking to media, Kashmir Singh thanked the
President of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan for setting him free
after 35 years. He also appealed to the Indian government to free
Pakistani prisoners from its jails as a goodwill gesture.
Kashmir had special praise for Burney’s efforts; he also
thanked the Pakistan government for releasing him. But he was
disappointed with the India authorities, and said so.
“Let me make it clear. I am not thankful to the government of India
for my release at all. They did nothing either for me or for my family
when I was there. My family suffered. I don’t regret what I did in 1973
as it was my choice.”
I was an Indian spy, admits Kashmir Singh
CHANDIGARH 7th March 2008: Kashmir Singh, who was freed from Pakistani jail after 35
years, on Friday, admitted that he was an Indian spy and did his best
to serve the country, but deplored that successive governments at the
Centre did nothing for his family.
“After my arrest in 1974,
the successive governments did nothing for my family. I did the duty
assigned to me as a spy…but the government after my arrest did not
bother to spend a single penny for my family,” a calm and composed
looking Singh, who was accompanied by his wife Paramjeet Kaur, told
reporters in Chandigarh.
Sixty-seven-year-old Singh thanked
God for being kind to him and said the various governments at the
Centre did nothing for any of the prisoners languishing in various
jails in Pakistan.
“The Central government did not bother to
take care of my family following my arrest. The government does only
the paper work,” he said.
Asked whether he was sent to
Pakistan by the Military Intelligence and the route he took to go
there, Singh said, “even Pakistan authorities failed to get this
information from me”.
“I was paid Rs 400 as salary…as per duty, I went to serve the country,” he said.
Asked
what he would like to say for some other people who are working in
similar kind of professions, Singh said “I was a spy and did my
duty…about others I will not comment…I am not President of the
country to give reply to such queries”.
Singh, who was lodged
in seven different jails in Pakistan, said “I will not tell the story
of my ordeal in Pakistani prisons as it will damage the cases of about
100 other such prisoners languishing in jails there”.
“Only I can say that I am a firm believer of God and even offered namaz and kept roza (fast) in the Pakistani jails,” he said.
When asked how she managed to sustain her family, Kaur said “I worked as maid”.
“After my husband’s arrest, the Central government gave no compensation to the family and left me in lurch,” she said.
He said in Pakistani prisons he was known by the name of ‘Ibrahim’.
“I was kept in solitary confinement and remained chained for 17 long years,” he said.
Earlier, Singh, along with his wife, met Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in Chandigarh.
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on Mar 4 2008. Filed under