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Now that India has released eight Pakistani POWs, an entirely avoidable interlude in bilateral ties comes to a welcome end. When on the eve of Pakistan's independence day, India announced that it was releasing eight of that nation's soldiers taken prisoners of war in the Kargil conflict as a goodwill gesture, the matter should ideally have rested there. A polite chorus of appreciation for New Delhi's olive branch on such an important anniversary. A sober assessment of how this action would help recover some of the diplomatic ground ceded just days before after the downing of Pakistan's Atlantique reconnaissance aircraft in the Rann of Kutch. A blinding choreography of flashbulbs as the eight soldiers in Indian custody were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Chapter closed.
But it took an entire fortnight after the two nations celebrated their respective independence days, during which the POW issue became increasingly acrimonious, before the eightsome could restart their journeyback home. And as with all else in Indo-Pak ties, the release was shrouded in a maze of allegations and counter-allegations and threatened to snowball into yet another faceoff. Some reports had it that New Delhi was actually on firm ground, that as per the Geneva Convention, Islamabad did not comply in confirming the identity of these POWs, that Pakistan was in fact reluctant to do so as it would reconfirm the presence of its soldiery and not the so-called Mujahideen on the slopes of Kargil. Pakistan, for its part, was vehement in its claims that it had confirmed to the Red Cross the details provided by India and accused New Delhi of delaying the repatriation. Be that as it may, India's declaration on Friday that it would nevertheless go ahead with the release of the POWs was cause for good cheer. For, such niggling didn't quite behove a nation that prides itself on the exemplary treatment meted out to the 93,000 soldiers taken prisoners of war in the Bangladesh war. Stories are legion about how almost threedecades ago, Indian soldiers would sleep on the floor and leave the limited number of beds for their colleagues from across the border, against whom they had just fought a war.
There is a peculiar duality that characterises Indo-Pak relations. People of the two nations may despise their neighbouring state, especially in times of conflict or tension, but when it comes to dealings on the level of individuals, a special empathy endures -- even at the worst of times. Which is why the Army's decision to exhume the bodies of five Pakistani soldiers who perished in the Kargil misadventure and hand them over is heartening. The fact that one of the dead soldier's mother is terminally ill and wants to spend the rest of her days praying by his grave may be particularly poignant, but every soldier, dead or alive, has very real human beings grieving and worrying about him. Indeed, it is only by including such people in the matrix of bilateral exchanges that the two countries can step away from the mutual suspicion thathas held the subcontinent hostage for 52 long years.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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