Indian High Commission in Pakistan had got the consular access to 17 prisoners. But the authorities in India are yet to locate their kith and kin.
As many as 22 mentally challenged Indians, lodged in Pakistan jails even after completing their sentences years back, are awaiting their repatriation for want of verification of their addresses and antecedents. Two of them are even nameless. Officials have recorded one them aged between 45-50 years with a mark of 'Om' on the back of his palm as 'deaf and dumb', while the other is named as 'unknown'.
A-year-ago the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had got the consular access to 17 prisoners. But the authorities back home are yet to locate their kith and kin. Since then five more prisoners have been added to the list. Most of them had been taken into custody in border areas, while straying into Pakistan side. Five in the list are women ages between 32 to 60. The youngest of them is named Ramesh alias Madur Ramesh, age 23.
"These prisoners have not been able to disclose any particulars about themselves including the names of their parents or relatives, due to their mentally unsound condition," says Indian High Commission in Islamabad. Many of them seem to be old in the pictures. The prisoners have not been able to disclose any other particulars during the consular access, sources said.
To add to the worry of Indian prisoners since 2013 India-Pakistan Joint Judicial Committee consisting of retired judges of superior judiciary from two countries have not met or undertaken any visit to prisons in each other countries. As per a bilateral agreement signed in May 2008 between India and Pakistan, this mechanism was set up to ameliorate the conditions, ensure humane treatment and expeditious the release of prisoners.
In a RTI reply given to Jatin Desai General Secretary of Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) by the Deputy Secretary (Pakistan Desk) in the Ministry of External Affairs, the last meeting of India-Pakistan Judicial Committee on Prisoners was held in 2013. In April, Minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj had said that India would try to revive the Indo-Pak Judical Committee dealing with the welfare and overall status of prisoners of India and Pakistan lodged in each other's jails.
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), which is also working to spread word about prisoners, says the situation is no different on the Indian side as well, saying that at least 21 "mentally unsound" prisoners believed to be Pakistanis are also stranded in Indian jails in Punjab and Rajasthan.
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