Take up PoW’s case with Pak: HC to MEA

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 16

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday directed the Union Ministry of External Affairs to once again take up with Pakistan the release of war prisoner Surjit Singh. The direction by Justice Rajan Gupta came after the surfacing of “new evidence”.

The direction came on a writ petition filed by Angrez Kaur for release of her husband Surjit Singh. A constable with the Border Security Force, he was captured by the Pakistani army during the 1971 war in the Chhamb sector. He was, however, presumed to have been killed in the war.

Appearing before the Bench, her counsel HC Arora relied upon a statement given in April 2011 to a newspaper, “Jang”, by former Pakistani Human Rights Minister Ansar Burni. It was later reported in a vernacular newspaper. Among other things, it said Surjit Singh was in the Pakistan jail after completing 20 years of imprisonment.

The petitioner stated that subsequent news reports suggested that he was being released. The wife even went to the border to receive him, only to find one Makhan Singh, who was undergoing imprisonment in Pakistan on the charge of spying, but was repatriated under the assumed name of Surjit Singh. Makhan Singh admitted before news channels that Surjit Singh was still in a jail in Pakistan.