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Journalism of Courage
They have been sitting in protest at Jantar Mantar for over a week,out in the open for the first time in years. They claim to have been spies for Indian agencies,men who risked their lives on missions to Pakistan. Most were arrested,and returned home after years of interrogation and incarceration,and allege that those who had sent them now refuse to acknowledge it. These are the stories of six of them.
Mahender Singh
Hargobindpur,Amritsar
Jailed 1972-86
Mahender Singh was 25 in 1970,the year he claims he was recruited as a guide. I was put in touch with officials of the Intelligence Bureau by a neighbour. I was instructed on what my role would be by a DSP of the IB, Singh says.
He says his job was to transport people across the border. There would be three trips a month,he says,for which he was paid Rs 400 a month. I was also instructed to get back information on military roads being constructed by the Pakistani army,sit in on morchas,and look at formations of the Pakistani army. This went on for two years until the 1971 war, Singh says.
In April 1972,Singh was apprehended on the Pakistan border while he was allegedly escorting two other Indians,one of them an IB ASI,across the border. I was interrogated by the Pakistani Field Intelligence Unit for a month and 10 days. I was court-martialled and sentenced to imprisonment for seven years,while the ASI got 14 years. But I only returned to India in 1986. Since then,I have received no help,monetary or otherwise,and my children couldnt even study because I had no money, Singh says.
Vishnu Devi
Kathua,Jammu and Kashmir
Wife of Om Prakash,jailed since 1998
Vishnu Devi says her husband,Om Prakash,too was a guide who transported officers across the border and then brought them back three trips a month at Rs 2,000 per round. He was recruited by military intelligence in 1994,when he was 25 years old, she says. In 1998,he was caught near Samba in Pakistan. I was told this by agency officials who came to my house and said they were working to bring him back home. He has not come home since.
In letters to his wife,Om Prakash has told her he was at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for three years. He wrote to me he had admitted to the Pakistani authorities he was a spy,and they wouldnt let him go. The last letter I have from around a year ago says he is in Muzaffarabad prison. Our four children have suffered in this time,and I clean homes to make a living, Devi says. The four children are now aged between 22 and 16 and Vishnu Devi says she could not afford to send them to school.
Jagdish Lal
Patti,Amritsar
Jailed 1976-86
He was 18 in 1975 when he says he was given a weeks training by Intelligence Bureau officials. Rudimentary Urdu was taught. I was told to start conversations with Salaam Alaikum,say sarna instead of kilo. In the next 11 months,I made 11 trips for Rs 350 a month, Lal says. His job was allegedly to scout for locations of petrol tanks,and collect details of signages on cars of the Pakistani army. Once I managed to find a source in the Pakistani army and stayed with him for a while. I stole some letters of the army and brought them back,for which I received Rs 1,000, he says.
Lal was arrested in 1976,and interrogated for two months by the Field Intelligence Unit. I was given a 14-year term but returned in July 1986. When I came across the border,I was arrested by the BSF,because they didnt know who I was. I was interrogated for three days. A judge in Patiala dismissed the case after I proved my identity. I have three children; the government has done nothing for us.
Ram Prakash-Bishmah
Jammu
Jailed 1997-08
In 1993,at 21,Ram Prakash was introduced to officials of RAW as a photographer,he says. He claims he was trained for eight months and launched on his first mission in 1994. As a guide-cum-photographer,I went across the border and back three times a month. Till 1997,I crossed it 75 times. My job was to photograph military roads and bridges being built. The first three times,another guide went with me.
Prakash was apprehended returning to India on June 13,1997. I was interrogated for a year by the FIU. Not a day passed when I was not beaten up for information, he says.
On June 26,2008,Prakash was convicted under the Army Act in Pakistan and sentenced to 10 years in prison in Lahore. I returned to India on June 30,2008,on a prisoner exchange programme. Since then,there has been no help. The torture in the prison has left me physically incapable of doing any work,and I live on the generosity of my brother, Prakash says.
Balwinder Singh Pilla
Gurdaspur
Jailed 1999-07
Pilla was working as a menial labourer in an FCI godown in Gurdaspur when,in 1995,he claims he was told there was a job in which he would be of service to the country. I was 31 years old at the time,and was told to get information on troop movement. Agents of R&AW paid Rs 1,500 a month. I was also told to make contact with sources in Pakistan and bring back information, Pilla says.
The last of Pillais alleged rounds was in 1999 before he was apprehended on the border by Pakistani Rangers while on his way to Lahore. When they caught me,there was nowhere to run,so I had to surrender. For nine months I was interrogated at Gora jail in Sialkot. For the next three-and-a-half years I was in Gujranwala jail,and then for three years in a Rawalpindi prison. In 2006,I was transferred to a jail in Lahore where people from the Indian embassy visited me. On August 13,2007,I was released,but for the years that I lost,I have received no compensation. I have two sons and they have not been able to go to school because of lack of money,
Pilla says.
Gurbaksh Ram
Firozpur
Jailed 1990-06
In 1987,Ram had passed out as a civil draftsman from an engineering college. But I was told I could serve my country. I was 21,and I was trained by R&AW for nine months. We were trained separately so that we would not be able to tell who the other spies were if interrogated, Ram says.
Ram says he made two 10-day trips to Pakistan with guides in 1988. I was then told to go on a long-term stay of five years. We were allowed to come back after two years to meet our families. My job was to find out the locations of military trucks and ammunition depots,the armys new weapons,and aircraft being used, says Ram,adding he was paid Rs 3,000 per month.
He was arrested in 1990. They interrogated me for three years. I was convicted under the Pakistan Army Act and awarded imprisonment for 14 years. I was kept in Gora Jail and in Lahore, Ram says.
It was 16 years later that Ram returned to India,with no money or employment. I once threatened to commit suicide if nothing was done. I couldnt get married,or have children. The government owes me, Ram says. Photos: Ravi Kanojia
