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Chandigarh, June 28: Surjeet Singh was released this morning and “walked free” hours later.
The 69-year-old Indian prisoner crossed the Wagah border from Pakistan in handcuffs, which were taken off only after all formalities had been completed.
The tears of wife Harbans Kaur, waiting at the checkpoint near Amritsar, said it all. “I thank the Pakistan government for releasing my husband and ending the pain of my children,” she said moments after giving her husband a hug for the first time in three decades.
Surjeet’s son Kulwinder and grandchildren were there too, besides friends and relatives from his village who garlanded him, distributed sweets and beat drums.
Surjeet was arrested in 1982 on the charge of spying and a Pakistan military court handed him the death penalty, later commuted to a life term. He completed that term around eight years ago and had been in illegal confinement since then.
“Yes, I was a spy, a RAW agent,” Surjeet, who had denied the charge in Pakistan, told reporters today. But he said he wouldn’t go to Pakistan again. “I do not want to go back as they (Pakistan) may accuse me of spying again.”
The comments appeared to have stunned Awais Sheikh, the rights activist and advocate who had handled Surjeet’s case. “The media here (in Lahore) have been hounding me for helping someone branded a spy. But I have only helped a person languishing in jail for several years. I have done nothing wrong,” Sheikh said over the phone.
Surjeet is the third person in the past four years to confess after release that he had crossed over for espionage. Kashmir Singh had done so in 2008, embarrassing then Pakistan minister and rights activist Ansar Burney who had worked to get him freedom after 35 years in captivity.
Gopal Das, who spent 27 years behind bars before being released last year, had spoken against Indian authorities for neglecting such prisoners.
Surjeet also spoke about Sarabjit Singh, his fellow inmate in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail. He attributed the confusion over his release to a “spelling mistake”.
“All this happened because of spelling mistakes. In Urdu, the spelling of Surjeet and Sarabjit is similar.”
Surjeet said Sarabjit was in good health. “I used to meet him once a week when Indian prisoners interacted. But since he is on death row, he has been kept in a secluded cell. Otherwise, he is fine.”
Foreign minister S.M. Krishna welcomed Surjeet’s release and urged Pakistan to also “consider” freeing Sarabjit. Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur met Krishna today, two days after Pakistan announced Sarabjit was being freed but hours later said it was not him but Surjeet.
