Date: November 27th 2008

From: Indian Express date: 27.11.08

The 101 Indian prisoners released by Pakistan as a goodwill gesture today blamed unhealthy conditions in Pakistani jails for deaths of several Indian prisoners. Though visibly relieved at returning to their homeland, many of them said they were sad at losing their friends to sickness owing to the conditions in the jails in Pakistan.

“Freedom would have meant more to me had my friend Daya, who was arrested with me when the Pakistani navy caught us fishing in their territorial waters in 2006, been with me today,” said Narsee, a fisherman from Diu. “Daya fell ill in Landi jail and died in the absence of treatment,” he explained. The body was sent to India almost two months after his death. More than 350 Indians are lodged in Pakistani jails and the condition of the majority of them is deplorable, he added.


KLM.comAds By GoogleJaish, another fisherman from Gujarat, said he has seen at least six Indians die in the Landi jail during his stay there. Bhupinder Singh, a resident of Jalandhar, one of the two Punjabis repatriated today, said at least 15 Indian prisoners had become mentally ill, while over six had contracted tuberculosis. Shashikant, another fisherman, urged the Indian Government to bail out the Indian prisoners. “They will all eventually die if nothing is done. The food is not good and the conditions are as bad as they can be,” he said.

How dreams of foreign shores turned sour
ATTARI: The dream of seeking greener pastures abroad turned sour for two more Punjabis, Bhupinder Singh, a resident of Jalandhar and Jaspal Singh, a resident of Kapurthala. The duo had an emotional reunion with their families, who had come to receive them at the border. Having migrated illegally five years ago, Jaspal said he would prefer to work and earn in his own country now. He had first gone to Lebanon in search of work and spent two-and-a-half years there. “From there I moved to Turkey with the intention to enter Greece. But I was arrested and sent to Iran by the Turkish authorities. From Iran I was pushed into Pakistan, where I spent the remaining two-and-a-half years,” he said, narrating the story narrated by most Indians looking to migrate to greener pastures abroad. “We sent him abroad for the lure of a decent earning, but had to pay for it very dearly,” said Joginder Singh,...