Two days ago, her prayers were answered. Pakistan human rights activist Ansar Burney claimed on Thursday that he had traced an Indian prisoner of war, captured during the 1971 war, to a jail in Quetta. His name, he said, was Surjit Singh. The same as Angrez’s husband, a BSF jawan who went missing during that war, three years after their wedding.
“He (Burney) has said this is a promise of an honest Muslim that he would ensure my husband is back home in a month,” says Kaur, sitting in her Faridkot home. “My sight is poor, my knees hurt. I just hope I live to see him.”
Singh was part of the 57 Battalion deployed in Jammu and Kashmir when he was captured.
Burney will take up Singh’s case with the highest authorities. The Punjab Government has reportedly also sought the Centre’s intervention.
Amrik Singh was just one and a half months’ old when his father went missing. “I have been looking for my father for 20 years. I met almost all spies who came back from Pakistan jails. Some told me they had either seen my father or had heard of him. Satish Kumar Marwaha, a soldier from Ferozepur who was also captured and returned in the ‘80s, had lived with my father in Kot Lakhpat Jail. The 36 Indian prisoners freed recently also recognised my father’s photo and told me he was alive.”
The Indian authorities, however, had certified Singh dead and the family, in fact, has been receiving pension.
But Angrez never lost her faith. “My mother always knew that my father was alive,” says Amrik. “She never let me hang a garland on his photo.”
