Half widows and relatives of missing Indian POWs head for Pakistan

June 01: Since 1971 both countries have exchanged too much animosity and the ?friendship? visits have always created the buzz, but this time it is more than that. A group of 54 persons, relatives of missing Indian soldiers, left for Pakistan today to confirm the status of their kiths and kins.

From last 35 years the relatives of those hapless soldiers were urging New Delhi to arrange their visit to Pakistani prisons so that they can find out what happened to their dear ones after missing from the 1971 India-Pakistan war, a mystery which is yet to be solved.

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New Delhi in turn tried to convince Islamabad, till now denying the presence of POWs of 1971. Most of them were missing belonging to army and the air force.



Pakistan took bold decision, even after denying imprisonment of any Indian prisoners of war; when this year President Pervez Musharraf offered to throw open the nation's prisons to the families of the soldiers to help find them. The group will start there two-week mission in the eastern city of Lahore. They will visit 10 Pakistani jails, check prison records and meet all prisoners of Indian origin.



Most people among the group want convincing closure to never ending emotional torture and agony. During last 35 years they never led normal life because for them everything is uncertain. Most of them wants to end now as Damayanti Vijay Tambay, whose husband Flight-Lieutenant Vijay Vasant Tambay went missing after he took off on a fighter plane at the height of the war, said, ?We are aware of the grim possibility (of them being dead) but we want a very convincing and fruitful closure to our case.



"What happened to them? Pakistan eventually shot them or they were killed trying to escape or they died of disease? At least tell us what happened."



Disappearance of dear ones has always created a void within the region since the independence and partition of the country. Even today thousands of the fate of thousands of people is yet to be known. If that wasn?t enough, Jammu and Kashmir state is also facing same tyranny. During last two decades many people got disappeared and till now nobody knows anything about them. Some of them were married and there wives got new name ?half widow? as is the Damayanti Vijay Tambay.