Ahead of the day-long visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Jammu & Kashmir on Tuesday, Kamlesh Devi, widow of Chamel Singh, an Indian farmer brutally murdered inside Pakistan’s Kot lakhpat jail in January 2013, has made another passionate appeal to him to listen to their ‘mann ki baat’ and acknowledge the sacrifice of her deceased husband.
“It’s over three years now when my husband was mercilessly murdered inside the Kot lakhpat jail in Pakistan on January 15, 2013 but i am still waiting for the compensation from the State/Centre,” Kamlesh Devi told The Pioneer.
She said her pleas so far have fallen on deaf ears. “My husband was an Indian national when he was captured alive and later convicted by a Pak court under charges of espionage.”
“After he was murdered inside the Pak jail I have developed a suspicion in my mind why his sacrifice has been ignored and why he is not been treated as an Indian national whose family needed Government support in his absence,” she added.
“Barring lip-service by national and State leaders no one has come forward to help me lead peaceful and dignified life. I have been deprived of adequate compensation by the successive State/Centre Governments”, she lamented.
In her appeal to the Prime Minister who is arriving here to inaugurate Super Speciality Hospital constructed by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and attend fifth convocation of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) Kamlesh Devi said, “My husband staked his life for the mother nation but there is no one who can support my children and deliver justice to us.”
Referring to the story of Sarabjit Singh, who too was targeted and killed by jail inmates inside the same jail in April 2013, her younger son Deepak Singh said, “Story of Sarabjit Singh is going to hit the screens and already hogging all the limelight but script of our story remains the same”.
He said, “Dalbir Kaur, elder sister of Sarabjit Singh highlighted his plight inside the Pak jail and fought against the system to earn justice for her brother’s family. the Punjab Government gave Rs 1 crore and the Congress-led UPA Govt announced Rs 25 lakh compensation for him from the PM’s relief fund besides according him status of a ‘martyr’. On the other hand, We are still struggling to make both ends meet”, Singh told The Pioneer.
“We were small kids when our father went missing from his fields in 2008. There was no one at home to plead our case at the highest level. We kept suffering in isolation. We could not even study in the absence of earning member of the family. Now we are spending our youth in earning justice for our mother and running the kitchen fire”.
He said despite submitting our grievance in the Prime Minister’s Office and highlighting out plight through local BJP leaders we have failed to earn justice.
“I am still earning Rs 120 per day as labourer in my native village of Pargwal. No one from the State Government or the Centre came forward to help us”.
Deepak said, “I have recently submitted a fresh application in January 2016 through the registered post in offices of the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister but so far I have not received any response from their offices as well”.
His mother Kamlesh Devi said, during elections BJP leaders raised the issue of injustice meted out to my husband in Pak jail and also promised all possible help. “It is very unfortunate after winning the elections in both the Centre and State the same BJP leaders who gave shoulder to the coffin of my husband dumped him.”
Deepak Singh said, at present family of another Indian prisoner Kirpal Singh from Gurdaspur is waiting for the mortal remains and the Govt of India is caught in a Catch 22 situation after he died under mysterious circumstances inside the same jail.
He regretted Dalbir Kour accompanied family of Kirpal Singh and met Union Home Minister seeking intervention of the Union Home Ministry at the highest level but in case of Chamel Singh no one came forward to help the family.