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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