Surinder Kumar: Spy feels betrayed after returning India

Yet another spy with a similar story- "Family not taken care off by my unit"

“Now that I have returned home, I find my family shattered. Due to the lack of support from the intelligence agencies his children have been deprived of education. His wife had to work as housemaid to make their both ends meet”. Feeling betrayed, Surinder Kumar, an Indian spy who returned home after serving 15 years in Pakistani Jails told had told media that said he would move court if the intelligence agencies did not come forward to help him and his family.

Suirnder Kumar said he was in the Indian Army from 1970 to 1978. He left the Army after he was lured by intelligence agencies to join them as spy. They assured better pay and facilities for his family in case he was caught in Pakistan. He went to Pakistan five times and stayed there for a period of about five years. However, in 1992 he was caught in Khiara village in Narowal district of Pakistan.

He was kept in military jail for about one year and given third degree torture. Electric shocks deteriorated his health and he was shifted to the Kot Lakhpat jail and awarded 12 years of jail sentence. In jail he was operated seven times for the reasons never explained to him. “Now that I have returned home, I find my family shattered. Due to the lack of support from the intelligence agencies his children have been deprived of education. His wife had to work as housemaid to make their both ends meet”.

Sarbjeet was not the only Indian spy facing death sentence in Pakistan. The Punjab High Court in Pakistan had awarded death sentence to Kirpal Singh, a resident of the college road, Gurdaspur, on charges of spying. Kirpal Singh is at present lodged in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

He disclosed that Kirpal Singh had filed an appeal in the Pakistan Supreme court against his death sentence. However, like Sarabjit he was not getting any support for any Indian or other organisation. He is dejected and is likely to face gallows in case he did not get active help from the human rights groups or the India Government authorities.

Surinder Kumar alleged that the plight of Indians in Pakistan jails was pathetic. Balbir Singh, a resident of Haryana, was hanged to death in 1997. Bihari Lal, a resident of the Sujanpur area of Gurdaspur district, was beaten to death by the authorities of the Kot Lakhpat jail just for moving a compliant that the soap and oil were not being supplied to them. Makkar Singh, a resident of Amritsar, was taken to hospital from jail, but was reported dead later.

The bodies of Indians kept lying in hospitals and were not cremated for long times. I my self cremated a few bodies that had decayed beyond recognition, he said.

Surinder Kumar further alleged that many others had already served the sentence awarded to them by Pakistani courts, but were still not being allowed to return to the country.

A few of his cell mates, including Sahabudin, a resident of the Poonch area in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, Kuldeep Singh, a resident of Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, Surjeet Singh, a resident of Ferozepore, and Kuldeep Kumar, a resident of Gujarat, had been in Pakistani jails for the past 25 years. They were awarded sentence ranging from 10 to 15 years. However, due to the lack of support from any quarter they had not been set free despite the completion of their sentence.

Mohanlal Bhaskar-Chilling account of captured spy’s fate

Like Kashmir Singh and Kishori Lal Sharma, Mohanlal Bhaskar was circumcised in 1965 and sent as a spy and an espionage agent in Pakistan. After spending 14 years in Jail, Bhaskar penned his experience on ‘spying’ in a book titled ‘An Indian spy in Pakistan’..

In his preface, Khushwant Singh had said, "Not all the wealth of the world would persuade me to undergo what Mohanlal Bhaskar had to go through in the jails of Lahore, Kot Lakhpat, Mianwali and Multan. It is a miracle that after all that he lives to tell his tale, retain his sanity and teach in a school"

Bhaskar was on a mission to find out information about Pakistan’s nuclear bombs. Betrayed by one of his colleagues — a double agent who was also subsequently arrested and had to face his own demons. (a lack of training?)

He was condemned to prison and torture in an alien country where he was to spend 14 years of his life (There might be many more in Pak jail). Perhaps he would not have been allowed to emerge alive. His salvation came when he was exchanged for Pakistani spies held by India.

Bhaskar got initiated into the profession of espionage when, fired with patriotism in 1965, he quoted the following lines in a speech on Bhagat Singh: "We have eaten the grain cultivated with your blood, It has nurtured the seeds of martyrdom in us"

While many audience applauded vociferously, one man questioned his sentiments to which Bhaskar had responded, "If it’s a question of serving my country I will not be found wanting. I’m prepared to serve with my life and soul in whatever capacity you want me" And so silently that not even his family got to know of it, Bhaskar "quietly underwent circumcision and became a Muslim convert. Even my wife was not aware of this momentous fact" (Undergoing a small surgery is mandatory for al secret agents assigned to Pak)

Bhaskar had detailed the torture that Bhaskar and other prisoners had to undergo at the hands of the Pakistani police and army. However, these accounts of inhuman torture are interspersed with descriptions of the many interesting people that Bhaskar came across in the Pakistani jails. People who were sadistic and cruel and people who showed unexpected kindness.

For example he wrote of Havaldar Abdul Rahman Khatak "who even in prison had helped me to keep up my morale his love and affection were like a fountain a desert which sprays cool, life giving water there was no hatred for me in his heart when I think of him my head is bowed in gratitude."

Another fact that Bhaskar brings to light time and again is the shared lineage and heritage of the people of the two warring nations. Raja Gul Anar Khan, who was considered to be "a living terror" traced his history back to Chandravanshi Rajputana while certain others had Sikhs as their forefathers but in turbulent times converted to Islam either by choice or necessity.

There are hair-raising descriptions of torture that were perpetuated upon the prisoners of war and spies in Pakistani prisons. "Torture is torture and it knows no limit. If one is hell bent upon torturing someone one can devise a hundred and one ways of doing so". From beatings and lashings to making the prisoners walk non-stop the whole night to injections of morphine all these accounts and more are there to chill the readers’ heart.

Bhaskar has drawn pen pictures of the many people whom he came across during his years in the Pakistani jails. There are accounts of Subedar Sher Khan, the Pathan who looked like Gregory Peck and who would have Bhaskar beaten up with sticks and chains without any rhyme or reason. Then there is Professor Shehzad Jalandhari, a "romantic soul" who had taken a fancy to the young son of a colonel and whose abusive behavior finally got him 14 years of rigorous imprisonment.

Question.
Why all spies cry of an ignorant attitude by their own government?
Should a spy ensure all aids from government to his family before heading for assignment?

(Bhaskar had published his book in Hindi. t was was translated in English by Jai Rattan. Shrishti. Pages 329 Rs 295)

Kashmir Singh: Another Indian spy who spilled the beans

Kashmir Singh, who languished in various jails in Pakistan for the past 35 years before being released, had said that he was a spy agent of the country. Singh said that the successive governments of the country did nothing for his family. He also said that he performed his the duties assigned to him as a spy, but after his arrest in Pakistan the Indian Governments did not bother to spend a single penny for my family.

Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal met Singh, who was accompanied by his wife Parmajit Kaur.
Badal had announced a pension of 5000 rupees per month each to Singh and his wife for his ‘outstanding services’ towards the nation. Badal had also also promised to grant a government job to one eligible dependent of Singh.

After his release from the Pakistani jails, Singh had appealed to the Governments of India and Pakistan to release Indian and Pakistani prisoners languishing in various jails in both countries inspite of completing their sentences. Kashmir Singh was convicted of spying and sentenced to death by a military court in Lahore, but the Pakistan government had stayed his execution in the late 1970s and last week President Pervez Musharraf pardoned him that resulted in his release from Pakistan jail. (Agencies)