Saturday, December 17, 2016

INDO PAK WAR 1971 : India, Pakistan and the 1971 War POWs

SOURCE:
http://thediplomat.com/2015/08/india-pakistan-and-the-1971-war-pows/



India, Pakistan and the 1971 War POWs

                                     By

                            







The Indian government is coming under 
pressure to lobby Pakistan fopressure to lobby Pakistan for the release of 54 
missing prisoners of war, held since the 1971 
conflict. While 90,000 Pakistani troops were 
captured by the Indian Army at the end of the 
war, and then released as part of the Simla peace 
agreement, 54 Indian soldiers, officers and pilots 
continued to be held by Pakistan.

Four and a half decades on, two British human 
rights lawyers are taking a case to the Supreme 
Court in Delhi on behalf of the missing men’s 
families. Successive Indian governments have 
done little to recover their missing military 
personnel – perhaps for fear of rocking an 
already fragile relationship between the two 
countries. The families are now hoping the 
Supreme Cor urt judge will rule that the case be 
handed over for independent arbitration by the 
International Courts of Justice, a body backed by 
the United Nations Security Council.

The families have approached both the United 
Nations and the International Committee for the 
Red Cross in their four-and-a-half decade 
campaign, but neither body was able to offer 
assistance.


Pakistan completely denied holding the 
prisoners until 1989, when then Prime Minister 
Benazir Bhutto finally told visiting Indian 
officials that the men were in custody. Years 
later, Pervez Musharraf would go back on this, 
formally denying their existence while he was in 
office. Long periods of denial, with occasional 
but short-lived reversals in admitting culpability, 
have made the job of Indian officials lobbying for 
release much harder. The prisoners are believed 
to have been discussed at the latest meeting 
between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and 
Nawaz Sharif in Ufa, Russia.


Captured Alive

There is compelling evidence to suggest the men 
were captured alive.


In 1972, Time Magazine published a photo 
showing one of the men behind bars in Pakistan. 
His family believed he had been killed the year 
before, but instantly recognized him.

The same year, a photo of another captured 
infantry officer was published by a local paper. It 
appeared to have been taken inside a Pakistani 
prison and smuggled out.


In her biography of Benazir Bhutto, British 
historian Victoria Schoffield reported that a 
Pakistani lawyer had been told that Kot Lakhpat 
prison in Lahore was housing Indian prisoners 
of war “from the 1971 conflict.” They could be 
heard screaming from behind a wall, according 
to an eyewitness account from within the prison.

Pakistani media outlets have also alluded to the 
men’s existence. The shooting down of Wing 
Commander Hersern Gill’s Mig 21 on December 
13, 1971 was followed that day by a radio 
broadcast, in which a military spokesperson 
claimed that an “ace Indian pilot” had been 
captured. Gill had led a four-plane sortie into 
Pakistani territory, but the planes had missed 
their targets. Returning to Indian airspace, Gill 
suddenly turned back to take another run, alone.

Once back in Pakistani territory, and closing in 
on his target, he was shot down by ground fire, 
but according to Indian Air Force sources, he 
may have managed to glide to a safe landing. 
Shortly after that, he appears to have been 
captured.

An American general, Chuck Yeager, also 
revealed in an autobiography that during the 
1971 war, he had personally interviewed Indian 
pilots captured by the Pakistanis. The airmen 
were of particular interest to the Americans 
because, at the height of the Cold War, the men 
had attended training in Russia and were flying 
Soviet designed and manufactured aircraft.

The families also claim that on the only two 
occasions when the Pakistani authorities have 
allowed them to visit Pakistani jails, prison 
guards privately attested to the men being alive – 
before more senior Pakistani officials ushered 
the relatives away.

One family member speaking to The 
Diplomat described these tours as “a sham,” 
saying they were carefully stage managed. The 
family member suspected the prisoners had been 
moved so as not to be discovered. A separate 
testimony from a released prisoner-of-war 
describes the prisoners being moved regularly 
between seven separate prisons, while another 
witness claims the men were at one point held in 
secret cells under Bahawalnagar Airport.


Behind Closed Doors
It took until 1978 for the Indian authorities to 
finally publish a list of the missing. The approach 
of the government since has generally been to 
negotiate behind closed doors and make limited 
announcements to the media.

A letter from the Indian ambassador in 
Islamabad, dated March 1984 and seen by The 
Diplomat, advises a family member: “We have to 
continue our efforts in a discrete fashion 
because any premature publicity can harm our 
overall cause.” Further memos circulated by the 
Islamabad embassy, also seen by The Diplomat
claim high-level conversations have taken place 
privately on a number of occasions, always 
instigated by Indian officials, but the Pakistani 
government continues to officially deny the 
men’s existence, making progress difficult. A 
memo between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi 
and her ambassador in Islamabad suggests the 
matter was being discussed behind closed doors, 
yet it is hard to know how seriously the Indians 
were actually pushing for release, as the minutes 
were private.

Still, the families remain disappointed with the 
Indian government’s performance.

“They should have been released when the 
90,000 Pakistanis were released,” says Rajwant 
Kaur, sister of one of the missing. She 
remembers her brother flying low over their 
house close by to the military airfield, and him 
dropping her at the airport as she flew to meet 
her new husband in the United Kingdom. That 
was the last time she saw him. He had 
volunteered to do a third operational tour. “He 
didn’t need to go again,” Kaur remembers. “I’m 
very angry at the Indian government,” she adds, 
claiming they simply “hadn’t bothered” to secure 
the release of their own men when hostilities 
ended.

Analysts have mixed views on what impact the 
Supreme Court case could have on relations — 
currently overshadowed by terror attacks, and 
the release on bail of a Taliban leader thought to 
have orchestrated the deadly Mumbai shootings. 
Last month, Khalistani separatists launched a 
terrorist attack in Punjab province, with many 
Indians believing the attacks were supported by 
the Pakistani intelligence services.

Harsh Pant, a leading scholar in international 
relations at Kings College London’s India 
Institute, sees the missing prisoners of war as an 
opportunity for reconciliation.

“The relationship has been in limbo for a long 
time, and there is now an appetite both from 
Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif to try and move 
things forward. The PoWs case probably won’t 
change realities on the ground too much, but it 
could change public perceptions of the talks and 
help build confidence,” he argues, adding that 
Pakistan had probably held back the prisoners as 
political leverage. “It’s a humanitarian case, so 
it’s very unseemly of both governments.”

‘Pregnant With Dereliction’

Raoof Hasan, executive president of the Regional 
Peace Institute in Islamabad, which conducts 
civil society diplomacy efforts between the two 
countries, was damning of both governments, 
saying the virtual silence over four and a half 
decades was “pregnant with dereliction.” He 
argued the Indian government had failed in their 
duty to retrieve the personnel, but is skeptical 
that even with an International Court of Justice 
ruling, the case would move forward, saying 
Pakistan had already shown itself willing to 
“violate international norms.”

“Any new outcomes would be hugely 
embarrassing for both; nevertheless the best 
course remains back-channel efforts,” Hasan 
told The Diplomat, adding that his organization 
would now be offering its support to try and 
broker a deal.

“Taking the case to the International Court of 
Justice is a good idea,” says Zubair Ghouri, a 
Pakistan security analyst and author of The 
Media-Terrorism Symbiosis: A Case Study of the 
Mumbai Attacks. Like Hasan, Ghouri believes 
that “with recent events, this is not an issue that 
could be brought up in front-line diplomacy, but 
it could still be sorted out via back channels.”


“The 1971 war is still taken very seriously,” 
Ghouri explains. “Simla was a humiliating 
agreement Pakistan was forced to sign. If there is 
any truth to the PoW claims, the Pakistani 
government may be engaged.”

Maroof Raza, editor of Fauji India magazine and 
a leading Indian defense analyst, says the release 
of the prisoners would be “a great humanitarian 
gesture” by Pakistan, but believes it would not 
help improve relations — thanks to bad blood 
over the Kargil War and Mumbai attacks.


“To improve any relations,” Raza told The 
Diplomat, the Pakistani polity has to “show 
definite intent in containing cross-border 
terrorism by its so-called non-state actors.”

Key witnesses giving evidence to the Supreme 
Court trial, who can’t be named for legal reasons, 
told The Diplomat they have already been 
approached by Indian military personnel 
offering bribes to withdraw their testimony. 

Another relative claims that former Army 
comrades had warned her to “drop it, they’re 
dead – time to move on.” Though the Indian 
government has been reticent for diplomatic 
reasons, there may have been military errors 
made leading to the men’s capture which current 
or retired soldiers want covered up.


Though no date has been firmly set, the case is 
expected to proceed later this month.



















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