New Delhi, May 28: Recent thaw in Indo-Pak relations has rekindled hopes among relatives of 54 prisoners of war (PoWs) allegedly kept in Pakistani jails since the 1971 war and they have begun parleys with the government for taking up this issue in the anticipated summit level talks. Joint secretary of Missing Defence Personnel's Relatives Association, Vipul Purohit said that "top officials in the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi recently assured us that the issue of release of the PoWs would be taken up on a priority basis whenever any talk between the two countries was held."
MDPRA, though lauds the efforts of the Indian government during the summit level talks between Vajpayee and Musharraf in Agra in July 2001, suggested a change of approach for seeking release of the PoWs. Purohit said that Pakistan government had always emphatically denied keeping any Indian PoWs in their jails and it could be possible that they have been kept as civilian prisoners on the pretext that their nationality had not been identified. He said MDPRA had spoken to some of the prisoners recently released from the jails by Pakistan and all of them said that some mentally deranged old persons have also been kept in the prisons. Bureau Report