India believes there are at least 83 missing defense personnel, including Prisoners of War from 1965 and 1971, awaiting their release from Pakistani custody. The disclosure has been made in an affidavit filed by the Central Government in the Supreme Court.
According to the document submitted by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) before a bench headed by Justice Dhananjay Y Chandrachud, the Center submitted a list of 83 defense personnel to the Pakistan government on March 8, 2021, seeking their release.
The Center said that it had raised this issue with Pakistan. The letter, issued through the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, said, “Sent a list of 83 missing Indian defense personnel. Respected Ministry (of Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs) is requested to look into this matter related to their whereabouts and speedy release and repatriation of missing Indian defense personnel.”
Of the 83 names in the list of defense personnel, 62 were reported as prisoners of war, most of whom were from war between the two countries during the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.
Of the 21 defense personnel in Pakistani jails who are not prisoners of war, the oldest cases are believed to date back to 1996. That year, five Indian Army personnel, including a captain, went missing. In 1997, two army men went missing again. One of them was Captain Sanjit Bhattacharjee.
Sanjeet was part of a platoon patrolling the Indo-Pak border in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. On 19 April 1997, Captain Sanjit Lance Naik went missing along with Ram Bahadur Thapa while 15 others from the platoon returned to their camp. The captain’s family was informed the day he went missing.
The MEA’s affidavit has been filed in response to a petition filed in the Supreme Court by Kamala Bhattacharjee, mother of Captain Sanjeet. The 84-year-old mother had approached the court in February 2021 seeking suitable directions to the Center to ensure the safe return of her son from Pakistan.
On March 5, 2021, the top court asked the Center to add a list of equally deployed officers of the Indian Armed Forces, who are still lodged in Pakistan’s jails, besides informing them about the whereabouts of Captain Sanjeet.
In response, the Ministry of External Affairs sent a message regarding the 83 missing Indian defense personnel to the Government of Pakistan on March 8, 2021.
Regarding the whereabouts of Captain Sanjeet, the government said that the Government of Pakistan has not acknowledged his presence in its custody till date and the Government of India is pursuing the matter regularly through diplomatic and other available channels.
“The High Commission of India in Islamabad is regularly taking up the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan to ascertain the whereabouts of Indian Defense personnel missing in Pakistani custody and to ascertain the speedy release and repatriation,” the affidavit said. Captain Sanjeet’s name appears in the list of missing Indian defense personnel shared with Pakistan through various notes verbal issued by the High Commission of India.
The Center said it was making every effort to obtain information about Capt Sanjeet, and that it would “continue to take up the issue with the Government of Pakistan, requesting a response on Capt Sanjit Bhattacharjee’s situation”. “