Prisoners of War
By: Arvind Katoch
It is very-2 tragic to her to story of Prisoners of peace. Recent death sentence to Surbjit and his family members fight has forced us to think about this issue. Surjit was given death sentence by Pakistan Supreme Court for being involved in three bomb blast in Pakistan. However the first question is of identity clash. Surbjit was identified as Manjit singh, an Indian spy. Where he has provided all the documents telling he is Surbjit. Second thing is the apathy of Indian Government,
Which has taken no concern for him?
Question is how long innocent people will go on suffering for the tension between two nations. This is the issue which has brought us more near on humanitarian grounds. People from both sides are suffering for this. Our objective should not only to save Surbjit, But to help every one suffering from it irrespective of his nationality. I welcome this initiative by Indian press.
We have first time seen that people from all background are coming across to save Surjit. This is possible only because of the healthy media present in India. Earlier we have seen lot of people dying in prison even without being noticed. Still there are reports of thousands of people from both sides waiting for to be released. Main concern is that why for so many years no body had come up with these issues.
People are mostly from poor background, therefore nobody to fight for them. Their families are not in this state to help them. Even Surbjit Family has to fight for last twenty years to highlight this issue. This is the power of these four women (Surbjit sister, two daughters and wife), which has forced the government of India and Pakistan to think about this issue. This issue also highlights the power of media. But surbjit family was not able to do in twenty years is done by media is just one month.
It makes us to think to strengthen our media. One more thing concern me is the behavior of Indian government towards this issue. Surbjit family had got the maximum help from Canadian agencies, where Indian government has done nothing irrespective of lot request. This is not a good sign for country like India. However the good news is that we have aware people and media. Hopefully no more this type of things will happen in future. People in jails will we released soon.
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