Indian and Pakistani Home
Secretaries shake hands in Delhi on Monday
Condemned
Indian Spy Creates a Dilemma for General Musharraf
By
Arun Rajnath
NEW
DELHI, August 30: As senior Indian and Pakistani officials held
formal talks in New Delhi on the fate of Sarabjeet Singh (Left),
the RAW agent sentenced to death in Pakistan, Pakistani and Indian
analysts admitted that General Musharraf was faced with a very
tricky situation as he had already started hanging men accused
of attempts on his life, although proper legal recourse had not
been provided to these Pakistani citizens.
“Sarabjeet’s
case has taken an important dimension as the entire Indian Establishment
has put its diplomatic and political foot down to seek his release
but Musharraf will face a lot of flak at home because he has quickly
hanged one person and has lined up five others to go to the gallows
for trying to kill him. How can he let an Indian agent go in such
a situation,” an analyst writing for Pakistani newspapers
from New Delhi asked.
Sarabjeet’s
case is in the Supreme Court of Pakistan which confirmed his death
sentence, but the five accused facing death are not even allowed
to appeal in any court and the legal process they have gone through
is very dubious. It is just like “Emperor” Musharraf
ordering someone to be beheaded because he did something which
the Emperor did not like, the analyst said.
Singh has been languishing in Kot Lakhpat jail in Pakistan for
more than a decade and now is facing gallows but the question
is still not clearly answered whether he actually has been a RAW
agent? What would be his fate had the Indian media and some Pakistani
organizations not raised this issue?
Sarabjeet
may well be a RAW agent because RAW chief PK Hormese Tharakan,
Intelligence Bureau Chief ESL Narsimhan and Home Secretary VK
Duggal met at the Home Ministry on August 25, 2005 to discuss
the matter and to report the ‘facts’ to the Prime
Minister.
Home
Ministry sources say that whenever such an agent is arrested in
an enemy territory, the home country quickly disowns him. One
such case was of Rooplal who spent 26 years in a Pakistani jail.
He did not have media support like Sarabjeet. But then he was
released and returned to India. Now he has become disenchanted
with the system. Recently he visited New Delhi and talked to the
South Asia Tribune.
Rooplal
told this correspondent that the Government of India did not come
forward to rescue him from the Pakistani jail. The authorities
urged him to keep mum instead. Rooplal was an Indian agent and
was caught thrice for espionage. He has also been a commando and
Indian authorities sent him to Pakistan for the last time after
plastic surgery.
He
told SAT: “When I returned to India after serving
in Pakistani jail, Indian authorities urged me not to utter a
word as it would not be in the national interest. I kept mum for
a time, but nobody came forward to help me out and provide financial
assistance to me.”
“Thereafter,
I filed a case in the court and the court ordered the Government
of India to pay me Rs750,000 in compensation. The Government also
promised me to grant a petrol pump and a piece of land. I have
got the money but nothing else,” he complained.
Another
case is of Vinjaram, who has been languishing in Pakistani jail
in Hyderabad for eight years on the charges of espionage. Vinjaram
belongs to Barmer district of Rajasthan. He crossed the border
and was arrested by the Pakistani Rangers. A Pakistani court sentenced
him to seven years. After five years of his punishment, his relatives
received a post card in the year 2005.
On
receiving the letter, his relatives came to know about his whereabouts.
Initially they thought he had gone somewhere for some unknown
reasons. They never knew that he was in a Pakistani jail.
Vinjaram’s
wife Raju Devi told the South Asia Tribune: “I
have been trying to get my husband released, but no Indian official
has paid any heed to my requests so far. Since the Government
of India is trying to get Sarabjeet released, I have become hopeful
that my husband will also come back.”
Sources
say two Indian armed forces personnel are also languishing in
Pakistani jails besides many others. They belong to Indian State
of Himachal Pradesh and are identified as Flight Lieutenant Sudhir
Goswami and Captain Dalgeer Singh Jambaal. No Indian official
is ready to talk about them.
About
Sarabjeet, a co-prisoner with him in the same Pakistani jail,
Gajjan Singh of Village Chak Allah of the Atari Sector, who was
released and returned to India, told South Asia Tribune
Sarabjeet was known as Manjit Singh. He said: “I do not
know about his identity but he told me that he has been sentenced
on fabricated charges and was compelled to confess that he was
an Indian spy.”
Experts
say it is a common practice of Indian agencies to hire common
folk to become undercover agents. The idea is to hit and run on
the motto: “Chal gaya to chal gaya. Mar gaya to mar
gaya.” (If he succeeds, well and good. If he is dies,
so what).
Such
people are usually recruited by the G-Branch, an intelligence
unit of the Border Security Force. The BSF compel villagers and
smugglers to work for it, and after initial training they are
pushed into the enemy territory. Later, they are recruited by
the RAW and IB.
The
Pakistani secret agency ISI also does the same thing. It also
hires poor Pakistanis who live along the border. After giving
them initial training, they are pushed into India.
The
question is how much time it would take to dispel the clouds of
doubt between the two countries? There are several Sarabjeets
in Pakistani and Indian jails who have been made pawns by the
secret agencies of the two countries.
