Daily Times

Alistair Sloan likes to be known as an investigative journalist whose forte is turning out to be selective advocacy rather than a wholesome pursuit of the truth. His professed passion, one believes, is human rights, a going commodity that is commercially saleable these days but more often an ill-defined preoccupation based on imbibed prejudices. He wrote an article recently on the subject of Indian prisoners of war (POWs) for a weekly international publication. He is scheduled to visit New Delhi next month, quite expectedly, to dig deeper for his write up for perhaps another magazine. A respected colleague from the US sent me the following questions whose answers were being sought by Mr Sloan: a) if India released 90,000 Pakistani prisoners at the end of the conflict, why were 54 prisoners overlooked going the other way, especially given that Pakistan was hardly in a strong negotiating position at that time? And b) how could a release now affect relations?
The real catch is built into the second question, which is loaded with the suggestive presumption that those unfortunate souls were, allegedly, still held by Pakistan. There could be nothing more preposterous. This approach is illegitimate by conception and therefore unexceptionable. We will come to this a little later. A retired Indian army officer also broached this matter with me more than a year ago. He seemed to be a campaigner for these mysterious Indian men, claimed to be held by Pakistan by the Indian and other foreign media, certain affected families and quite a few others who have a stake in it one way or the other. Moved by this startling disclosure I started off in earnest but regrettably that officer turned out to be more of an insensitive self-seeker rather than someone genuinely concerned. It was so distressing to see men playing with tender human sentiments in this blatant manner.
For the families of these men it is an agonising situation. I know how unbearably painful it can get. I had been a prisoner in Indian camps after the same war. However, the matter has been scandalised, made a slander tool and pasted on every wall in town, obscuring the real issue. The issue was humanitarian and needed to be discussed objectively for the sake of their families and not for point scoring.
I have been in quite a few important positions of considerable access to information in the GHQ, field formations and elsewhere after 1980 and have never heard or seen anything about these allegedly held 54 Indian PoWs of the 1971 war. Such a thing can never be kept under wraps, that too for so 44 years. A whole lot of officials of all descriptions have replaced many more ever since but not a single word? Amazing. Pakistan is not a gulag or Andaman exile. We do not run Gauntanamos or Pul-e-Charkhis either. In my assessment, the trouble with this whole issue is that there are underlying presuppositions by their interlocutors and the likes of Alistair Sloan, which defeat fruitful interaction ab initio. It is like hanging the wretch first and conducting his trial later.
The notion presumes that Pakistan has retained the alleged PoWs with an ulterior motive. None has defined what that could be and how it will be served. The sadism of the idea is so irresistibly appealing to the ravenous media and professional spin masters that they are not prepared to grant any decency and compassion to Pakistan. This pre-cooked thick stew about our perceived conduct is lapped up gleefully as it sells easily. The media is voracious and the story tends to feed just the juice that it yearns for. Even a modicum of civility allowed to Pakistan would unspin the whole evil weave that could end the success run of quite a few news howlers.
Acts of grace, humanitarian consideration and responsible conduct by us are either conveniently ignored or trashed as freak accidents. The rescue of Indian citizens from the teeth of the Yemeni battle zone earlier this year, sustained efforts for months by the Ansar Burney Trust Pakistan to free Indian Commercial Navy men along with ours from Somali pirates last year and the unscathed return of an Indian army helicopter, which strayed into the sensitive Siachen sector along with its crew are not ordinary acts. They need outstanding character and not hollow humility or empty talk. But we are not given to thumping our chest for what we do to help fellow men in distress. We are generous and not petty, unlike what Mr Sloan and his sort would prefer us to be painted. That is why such commendable acts of compassion by Pakistan do not make news.
Very frequently Pakistan releases Indian fishermen in their hundreds who are found fishing in the disputed waters of Rann of Kachh Bay. One has to see the expressions on their faces for being well-treated in detention as Pakistan understands they are victims of India repeatedly refusing to settle the long standing issue of demarcation of the sea boundary. We have never killed an Indian held in our custody.
Pakistan is not Rwanda or a Roman coliseum where ferocious men must kill, maim and destroy. Their inclination seems to be to judge the whole of us by the beastly few who were imposed upon. It is well known but still begs repetition that by now notorious and again scandalised Bombay terror attack was tried by the Indian courts. After six years of gruelling trial and thousands of pages of high legal hairsplitting along with concerted efforts by their otherwise efficient and nearly prescient intelligence and investigating agencies, the court found it hard to link the tragic incident with Pakistan. However, what was thrown up before and continues to bounce around in the media around the world was conjecture and sensationalism despite the tragic and needless loss of lives.
Pakistan is a victim of manufactured perceptions, a massive failure of its successive leaderships to rise to the occasion, their feet made of clay when faced with challenging situations and immense disjointedness in our ability to present the country’s case effectively. Pakistan is not going to be everybody’s punching bag hung in the public park for long. We will regain our dignity and will regard those well who understood our difficulties and stood by us.
The journalistic theatrics of Alistair Sloan’s article are understandable. How else would reputed international publications lift his write up? This case needs genuine concern and very thoughtful application. An obsession for ratings and lust to whip Pakistan any which way is futile. We can be angry but not callous.

The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan army and can be
reached at clay.potter@hotmail.com