23 years, 6 lakh km travelled, petitions to over 150 leaders, but Dalbir couldn’t save her brother Sarabjit
Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails go in and out of news but never out of incarceration. Many have died or turned crazy while suffering in isolatory jails. Sarabjit Singh died a gory death some months back after being attacked fatally by inmates. The travails of his famiy are well documented. SHAlINI SAKSENA spoke to Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir who has given her entire life to getting Sarabjit justice and freedom. She is sad that she failed on both counts but says she will fight for the rest of them all, in her brother’s memory
Death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who had been in a Pakistani jail for 23 years for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Punjab province which killed 14 people in 1990, died on May 2, 2013 at lahore’s Jinnah Hospital. He was on life-support since April 26 after being attacked in Kot lakhpat jail by others inmates.
His death should have brought a closure for his family, especially his sister Dalbir Kaur who had made it her mission to bring back her brother safe and sound. But the 58-year-old’s battle continues. This time, to bring back her brother’s belongings.
“Woh toh chala gaya par uska thoda sa saaman jail mein hain. I have to get that. His shirt, pant, belt and shoes in which he was caught are with the Pakistani jail authorities. Then there are a few other clothes that I had taken for him whenever I went to meet him. There are his watch, pen, small religious books like The Bhagwad Gita that I had given him, a mobile, a kettle to heat water and a small cooler. We had also opened an account for him which would have around Rs 20,000. I need to close that as well. But for now, I just want to stay with my brother’s family and come to terms with the tragedy,” Dalbir tells you over the phone from Bhikiwind.
A tragedy of phenomenal proportions really — and not just because Sarabjit’s sister spent more than 20 years fighting for a cause that ceased to exist. It was a mental and physical trauma that Dalbir had to undergo in her fight. Married at 25, Dalbir was too attached to her brother. When Sarabjit was taken prisoner in 1990, she made it a personal fight, a fight which led to clashes with not just in-laws but also her husband.
“Once Sarabjit was caught, I used to make several trips to Delhi. I would take appointments over the phone but once I reached their office, the officer or the Minister concerned would make me wait for hours. There have been instances when I have had to wait for days to speak with the Minister for just five minutes,” Dalbir says, adding that in her fight for Sarabjit’s release, she must have spoken to many leaders.
She had to make more than 50 calls before the then Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao agreed to see her. ‘Don’t worry we will bring your brother home,’ Rao had promised her back in the early 1990s. But as a concerned sister, she didn’t sit and wait for the Prime Minister to take action. She spoke to over 150 leaders from both the countries. She held candlelight marches, met Rahul Gandhi several times and his mother Sonia Gandhi six times.
“These are big leaders and have other things on their minds. But for me, it was my brother’s life which was on the line. I didn’t mind making these trips to Delhi to meet them,” she tells you.
The situation back then was not easy. Her in-laws would taunt her. ‘Tere ko kya karna hai. Uski biwi ko jaana chahiye. Tu apna ghar chhorh ke apne bhai ki liye kyon karti haiIJ’ were only some of the things that my in-laws used to say. Though I had my husband’s support he, too, would sometimes take his parents’ side and fights would ensue. He would yell at me, tell me I was neglecting ‘my family’. This hurt but I continued my fight,” Dalbir recalls.
And it has been a journey of several lakh km since 1990. She not only travelled all over the country — more than 6 lakh km — she even made several trips to Pakistan to re-tell her brother’s story at every stop and raise the issue of Indian prisoners in Pakistan.
“I don’t know how many miles I would have walked in these 23 years but it would be over 6 lakh km. I did whatever people told me to do — offered prayers in every temple and gurdwara. There was not even a single puja I did not perform for his (Sarabjit) return,” Dalbir says.
If this was not enough, she even razed her family home in Bhikiwind because a pandit told her that the only way he would return home would be through the front door that had to face west. The house was reconstructed in record time — such was her hurry to ensure her brother’s safe return. Every bite of food she took was dedicated to her brother. For every bite of roti, she prayed to God – ‘Rab jaise mujhe roti khila raha hain mere bhai ko bhi aise hi roti naseeb ho,’ she would pray.
“Before going to sleep, I would again pray to God. ‘Jis tarah se mujhe khule aasaman ke neeche chain ki neend de raha hai mere bhai ko bhi de.’ These prays have become so much a part of my life that even today, when my brother is no more, before every bite, the prayer is repeated. Kya karein, 23 years mein aadat si ho gayi hai. Time lageyga,” Dalbir tells you.
Even though her in-laws always had complaints against Dalbir not giving enough time at home, she never backed down when it came to doing her duty as a daughter-in-law.
She looked after the house, took care of the in-laws and continued with her mission to bring back her brother home. Ask her how she managed to juggle all this and she says, “God gave me strength. One can’t please everyone but if my in-laws are truthful about it, they will acknowledge I have done all that was needed to be done. Whenever there was a marriage in the family, I was there standing with them. I went out of my way to make sure there were no glitches. If I did for my brother and his family, I more than made up for it in my sasural,” Dalbir states. She has lost her brother but refuses to give up just yet. Her new mission is to fight for the freedom of other Indian prisoners who are in Pakistan.
She wants to highlight the conditions in which these prisoners are kept — there is not enough to eat, the standard of food is bad, soap is only given once every three months that has to be used for bathing and washing clothes. And, Indian prisoners are made to do the hardest work.
“I want to tell the world that we (India) treat our prisoners very well as compared to Pakistan. I also want the people to know that my brother was given some injection on the night of the attack so that he would not struggle or try to defend himself. It was nothing but cold-blooded murder,” she says, adding that her brother’s homecoming was not the way she had anticipated.
“Apne pair par nahin, char kandhon par usko naye ghar mein laya gaya,” Dalbir says with deep anguish. But the tears are yet to roll down.
HE WHO RETURNED
It is very tragic what happened to Sarabjit. No one deserves to die for a crime that he never committed. It was a case of mistaken identity. He should have been a free man long back,” Gopal Das, who spent 27 years in a Pakistani jail on spying charges, says.
Das, released on April 7, 2011, was caught on July 26-27, 1984 for spying for the Indian Army. “I used to cross over to take photographs of the Army bases in Pakistan. I was paid Rs 1,500 per month, plus some extra expenses. Once caught, there was no end to torture, both mental and physical. The next three years were spent in interrogation. Then came the physical torture. Beating, electric shocks and being hung from a rope and beaten with a wet cane were some common things that happened to me,” Das, who now works as a driver in Shimla drawing Rs 5,000 per month as salary, reveals.
He and other Indian prisoners (there were 35 with him) were given food that stank and was half cooked, made them weak. “I was made to do hard labour. I had to first cut down the bamboo, soak it and then make 5 kg of rope daily. This would leave bruises on the hands. Then I had to water the compound. At the end of the day, the two rotis that were given to me were inedible. The daal was like water,” the 54-year-old tells you. Since his return, he has not received any money in compensation from the Government. He has filed a case in Delhi High Court seeking compensation for the 27 years of torture.
Meri Awais suno
It was sheer chance that Pakistani lawyer Awais Sheikh took up Sarabjit Singh’s case in court. He was in India to release his book Sarabjit Singh: A Case Of Mistaken Identity when he met his sister Dalbir Kaur. She requested him to take up his case. This was in 2008-09.
“When I went back and went into details about Sarabjit’s case, I was shocked. The FIR didn’t even have his name. By then he had been in jail for 19 years. The FIR mentioned Manjit Singh, son of Mehenga Singh — a double agent. Manjit was finally caught in Canada with several documents that proved his involvement for which Sarabjit was in jail. I filed an application in Pakistan’s Supreme Court to have Sarabjit’s case re-opened and he be sent back home as the real culprit had been caught. The plea was denied,” Sheikh recalls. He is certain that had Sarabjit’s Government-appointed lawyer fought the case properly, he would have been a free man the day Manjit was caught.
Sheikh, who has been practising law for more than 25 years, tells you that the final attack on Sarabhjit was due to a combination of issues. First, Sarabjit had been making a lot of noise about how a human rights group was in Pakistan to ensure his release. Second, a group of fanatics didn’t want that he be released and the attack could have been engineered by them. Third, Afzal Guru’s hanging may have angered fellow inmates,” Sheikh analyses.
He says, he found Sarabjit a strong-minded man who always kept his cool. “He was a great artist as well. He loved making things. He once made a souvenir with Indian and Pakistani flags. Another time, I took some beads and a thread for him. He made a beautiful parandi out of them for his daughter. He also read a lot and dreamt of India being a great nation,” Sheikh, who saw Sarabjit alive for the last time in the last week of February 2013, recalls.
He also talks about the urgent need to improve Indo-Pak relations. “Both countries take prisoners but they should be released if found innocent. Sarabjit was a victim of politics. The fact that he never ever broke the prisoner rules says a lot about him,” he tells you over phone from lahore. Hours later, he was kidnapped along with his son. Both were later released by the assailants who thrashed them badly. No group took responsibility for this attack though Sheikh has talked about the threat on him due to him pleading Sarabjit’s case.