Daily Times

Sir: How true Mahatma Gandhi’s quote has become in the backdrop of the mentality of those people for whom he struggled for years to get freedom: “An eye for an eye will turn the whole world blind.” As the family of Sarabjit Singh mourns his brutal death at the hands of his Pakistani inmates in a Lahore prison, a tit-for-tat attack on a Pakistani prisoner, Sanaullah, in a Jammu jail brings Gandhi’s words to life. Sanaullah died on Thursday morning due to multiple organ failure. Both the Pakistani Punjab and Indian-Kashmir governments have announced to conduct enquires to determine the culprits but we all know this will not be more than an eyewash. Enquiry reports, if ever made public, will be based on ‘ifs and buts’ in an attempt to justify the hateful acts of violence.

Yes, we know fellow prisoners attacked them, but do we not know who the real culprits are? These apparent attackers were just zombies, driven by the hate mongering of right-wingers in both countries. These right-wingers not only fool the people to gain cheap popularity but also blackmail the respective governments to halt any step forward towards behaving like civilised countries. Do we not know what Sarabjit and Sanullah were doing when caught? When countries fight proxy wars they make innocent people their fodder to carry out terrorist activities. Perhaps it is time for both countries to review their policies towards prisoners. Hundreds of people are incarcerated in either country’s jails. Most of them are fishermen who are unable to influence their governments for their release. Those accused of terrorist activities are denied counsellor access and face brutal treatment. Both countries need to come out of the number game and should release all these fishermen. All those accused of terrorism should not be held beyond their stipulated sentences. Otherwise we are going to have more and more such tit-for-tat madness. Death is no victory and no one should claim it by murdering hapless prisoners.

MASOOD KHAN

Jubail,

Saudi Arabia