Kashmir Singh, the Indian spy on death row for 35 years in various Pakistani prisons, was released from Kot Lakhpat Jail on Monday evening to go home in Hoshiarpur district of Indian Punjab. He was caught in 1973 by the Pakistani authorities in Rawalpindi city and given a death sentence on charges of espionage.
He was to be executed in 1977 but the order was held in abeyance pending decision on his mercy petition. Then everyone forgot him, till last December when Caretaker Minister for Human Rights Ansar Burney came across him during a visit to Kot Lakhpat Jail and sought for him the presidential clemency which was granted. Kashmir Singh says he was an ordinary smuggler of electronic goods and wristwatches that were in those days freely available in Landi Kotal and had a good market in India.
All these years clung like a spider to the thread of hope in the lonely prison cell, the once sturdy Sikh had no greater desire in life than to get reunited with his family. He had left behind a young wife and a five-year old son. They came to receive him at Wagah, on the Pak-India border he had crossed over in the stealth of night 35 years ago and now he was making the return journey under the blinding glare of media coverage. This is the saga of a man caught in the vortex of events - none of his making - that so deeply impact upon the lives of so many.
But one swallow doesn't make a summer. There are scores of Pakistanis and Indians in prisons in India and Pakistan, many held incommunicado and without trial. There are many others who had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. And, probably a few might still be in captivity as POWs since the last two wars between the neighbours. Some months back a group comprising families and friends of some 54 Indian nationals visited various Pakistani prisons to locate their dear ones who had gone missing since 1965 and 1971 wars.
Quite expectedly, therefore, as the news of Kashmir Singh's release broke, the Pakistani media outlets started receiving reports from the families of many held unjustly or on frivolous excuses in Indian jails. There were also requests for condonation and clemency of the convicted by the Indian authorities.
The fact that the two countries have put in place a workable mechanism to release fishermen who 'mistakenly' intrude into each other's territorial waters, gives strength to the hope that a similar agreement is possible in cases involving other categories of detainees. Some exchanges of prisoners have already taken place and it is hoped that the lists of those still incarcerated would be exchanged soon for consideration later this month by the judicial committee set up consequent to an agreement reached at the foreign ministers' meeting last year.
Given that there are tens of thousands of divided families having relations living across the border, quite a few visitors, lured by tourist interest or sheer ignorance of rules, run afoul of law and overstay earning in return stiff penalties. There is the need to look into such cases with magnanimity and large-heartedness. The confidence-building measures (CBMs) agreed to by the two governments in political and economic fields have indeed considerably lowered tensions but normality required for productive neighbourly relationship is still not there. On this day when Kashmir Singh walks to freedom it is one's hope that the Kashmiris, who live in a much bigger prison under far more daunting circumstances, too would get some relief.
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