A few days back, the world heard Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, screaming vengeance for the imprisonment of the Kashmiri separatists.

He hopped from country to country talking in favour of the jailed Kashmiri Muslim separatists, who actually had, for several years, worked against the common man in Jammu & Kashmir, while filling their own pockets.

These people have never shown an iota of faith in the Indian Constitution despite having lived, earned and eaten in the country. But they had the PM of Pakistan shedding tears for them. Such irony!

The same Pakistan never felt even once that they should release the 56 India prisoners of war (POWs), especially after the fact that New Delhi sent back 93,000 Pakistani POWs.

We are talking about the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war when the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan agreed to a complete and unconditional surrender. The war ended and as per the terms of the treaty of surrender, 93,000 Pakistani POWs were released by the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government of the day.

But for the families of the Indian POWs, it was the beginning of a never-ending wait. The Indian government, it seemed, had forgot all about asking Pakistan to send back the Indian soldiers it had in custody.

It is tragic that the families of these POWs have not found closure.

And this apathy towards POWs does not seem to have ended under the current government too. To its credit, the Narendra Modi government was very prompt in getting Abhinandan back and has also fought bravely for Kulbhushan Jadhav.

But unfortunately, this government too has been incapable of ending the heartbreaking wait of 45 years for the families of those POWs.

One only has to remember Captain Saurabh Kalia to imagine what these POWs must have gone through over the years.

Captain Saurabh Kalia and five other soldiers were the first ones to confirm the intrusion by the Pakistani Army in Kargil. After continuous cross-fire with the Pakistani armed forces from across the LOC, he and his troops ran out of ammunition.

They were finally encircled by a platoon of Pakistanis and captured alive before Indian reinforcements could reach them.

Indian officials claim that Lt Saurabh Kalia and his men were in captivity from 15 May 1999–7 June 1999 (over twenty-two days), and were subjected to inhuman torture as evident from injuries to their bodies when they were handed over by the Pakistani Army on 9 June 1999.

Post-mortem examinations conducted by India revealed that the Pakistanis had tortured them by burning their bodies with cigarettes, piercing the ear-drums with hot rods, puncturing their eyes before removing them, breaking most of their teeth and bones, fracturing their skulls, and finally shooting them dead, as evidenced by bullet wounds . The post-mortem also confirmed the injuries were inflicted ante-mortem (before death).

Now imagine yourself as the parent, child or wife of one of the POWs of 1971. Wouldn’t you want that the government tries to at least find out about the status of these POWs? We do not have any information as to whether they are dead or alive.

Equally cruel is the fact that the Pakistan government, which sheds copious tears for Jihadi terrorists, is never co-operative on this issue.

No amount of goodwill gestures — like that of our Brigadier M P S Bajwa, who wrote a citation for late Captain Karnal Sher Khan and put it in his pocket, because of which Captain Khan was awarded the Nishan-e-Haider by Pakistan — moves our neighbouring country.

This happened during the same Kargil War that showed the thoroughly inhuman face of Pakistan with respect to Captain Kalia and his team. Perhaps the Pakistan Army has never received training in being gallant!

All our expertise in diplomacy stops at the doorsteps of the Pakistani government when it comes to our soldiers who were never released. Why? They had only done their duty as any proud Indian soldier would.

Since a foreign country is involved, these issues can only be taken up by the Ministry of External Affairs and the PMO. Is it not natural to expect our government to move the wheels of International Justice forums and fight for our POWs’ Right to Life?