Ajay Raina
JAMMU, Nov 6: Fed up with the assurances and false promises, the family members of Chamail Singh–a civilian hailing from Pargwal Sector of Akhnoor, who was tortured to death in Kot Lakhpat jail in Pakistan on January 15, 2013, said that the politicians raising the voice for granting of martyr status to late Singh vis-à-vis compensation to family seemed to be a political gimmick.
However, they are having high hopes from visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he will fulfill their demand of martyr status to Chamail Singh and compensation at par with Sarabjeet Singh, who was convicted in a series of bomb blast cases in Pakistan and succumbed to his injuries in a Lahore hospital after being attacked inside the same jail where Chamail Singh was tortured to death.
In 2008, Chamail Singh—the sole bread earner of the family went missing from his native village in Pargwal area of Akhnoor in Jammu province and was caught by Pakistani soldiers. After waiting for a long time, his wife Kamlesh Devi received a personal letter written from the Kot Lakhpat jail in Pakistan, which was from Chamail Singh describing vivid description of the circumstances leading to his arrest.
Chamail Singh was booked for espionage and was awarded imprisonment of five years. In the letter he wrote to his wife, Singh stated that he would soon return home after completing jail term in August 2013. But before Chamail Singh could return, he was mercilessly tortured to death by the Pakistani jail authorities on January 15, 2013.
After Chamail Singh’s death, in April 2013, when another Indian citizen Sarabjeet Singh, convicted in a series of bomb blast cases in Pakistan, was attacked inside the same jail and succumbed to his injuries in a Lahore hospital, Indian authorities reacted swiftly and stationed an aircraft to airlift the body after mounting diplomatic pressure on Pakistan.
Sarabjeet’s family was lucky to have received popular support in their fight. Starting from the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, leaders of mainstream Opposition parties, Congress top brass, including Rahul Gandhi lined up to pay homage to Sarabjeet.
A three-day mourning was announced by the Punjab Government after according him a State funeral, but the same was not done with Chamail Singh as neither the Central leaders nor former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, present CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and even Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh found it appropriate to visit his family and announce martyr status as Chamail Singh also died in the jail of neighboring country.
In comparison, when Sarabjeet’s body was airlifted to India in a special flight and was cremated with full State honours by the Punjab Government, Chamail Singh’s body was handed over to family members after 57 days and was cremated in his native village by his family and no one from the Government attended the funeral.
Sarabjit’s family was awarded Rs 1 crore compensation, the Centre gave an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh from the PM’s relief fund and his two daughters were given Government jobs whereas on the other hand, Chamail Singh’s family has not been paid even a single penny nor was any job offered to his sons.
The family of Chamail Singh is yet to recover from the shock and financial stress and their life has become miserable. His all the four sons namely Deepak Singh, Dara Singh, Rakesh and Suresh are working as daily wagers in fields of others.
In order to grant martyr status to Late Chamail Singh and suitable compensation to his family, BJP MLA Sat Sharma had submitted a representation to the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed through Principal Secretary to Chief Minister BB Vyas. In the recently concluded autumn session, Sharma again raised the issue of awarding due compensation to the kin of Chamail Singh during the zero hour and all MLAs from Jammu province supported the issue.
Inspite of raising the voice in the Assembly nothing has been done till today forcing the family of Late Singh to live a deplorable life.
Talking to the EXCELSIOR, Dara Singh said that “We have lost hopes from the State leaders as we still continue to run from pillar to post for justice. Even BJP Governments in the State and at the Centre have dumped our demands in the dust bin”, he added.
Raising voice in Assembly or before senior functionaries of Government in State and at Centre is not enough, he said, adding “that family members of Sarabjeet were compensated, Government jobs were offered to his daughter and title of ‘martyr’ was bestowed on Sarabjeet, but in contrast, around three years are about to get completed and we are still awaiting justice from the State and Central Governments.”
He said that “our father sacrificed his life inside a Pakistani jail and no one in the Government is willing to help us. We think that assurance by political leaders is just a gimmick, which is being played with our family by these leaders”.
“We are having high hopes from the visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he will fulfill our demands”, Dara Singh said, adding that “We will fight till martyr status is granted to our father”.
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