Surjit Singh was declared dead after he went missing during the 1971 war Surjit Singh was declared dead after he went missing during the 1971 war

She was 20 years old when her world fell apart. But Angrez Kaur lived on hope and prayers for 40 years. Now 60, she is ready to forget the decades of pain and struggle, for her hope to see the day she lived for is stronger than ever before.

Her husband Surjit Singh, who went missing during the India-Pakistan war of 1971 and was later declared a martyr, is alive. Pakistan's rights activist Ansar Burney on Thursday said he had traced Surjit to a Lahore jail and was trying to get him released as early as possible. Kaur can't believe fate has finally shown such kindness to her. "Isn't it a miraculous twist of fate?" she says before she breaks down.

Surjit, a Border Security Force constable, was captured by Pakistani forces during the 1971 war and tried as a prisoner of war (PoW). He was sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment. He completed his jail term in December 2010 but is still lodged at Kot Lakhpat jail. Surjit was deployed on the Indo-Pak border when the war broke out on December 3. The government later told Kaur that Surjit went missing the same night from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.

She had been married for only two years when her husband went missing. For three years, she didn't know whether he was killed or taken prisoner. She lost hope of his return when the government declared Surjit a martyr in 1974. Resigned to fate, Kaur returned along with her son to her parents' house in Faridkot from her in-laws' place at the nearby Tehna village. It was only about two years after her wedding. "We have been staying here since then," she said. Amrik knows his father only from the photographs and from what his mother has told him. He was only a month old when Surjit was captured.

The mother and son have faced a lot of hardships in the past 40 years. After Amrik grew up, he took up photography to earn a livelihood. Kaur faced a lot of pressure from her family and relatives to remarry after Surjit was declared a martyr, but she refused. And today she is happy that she did. Though she had lost hope of seeing her husband again, her heart refused to believe he was dead.

It was in 2004 that the family's hopes of Surjit being alive were rekindled. "We learnt in 2004 that he is alive. But there was no confirmation of this or information about him later," Kaur said. Khushi Mohammad, an Indian PoW who returned from Pakistan after completing his jail term, told her that Surjit was imprisoned there. "We approached the government for help. The BSF told us that it took up the matter with the Pakistan Rangers at a biannual meeting in Chandigarh in October 2004," she said. The BSF requested the Rangers to trace Surjit and arrange for his early deportation.

"We did not hear from anyone since then," she added. Losing hope of help from the government authorities, the family finally approached Burney through well-wishers and he didn't disappoint them. Burney said he started looking for Surjit in Pakistan after the latter's wife and son approached him and about a week's efforts earned dividends. He said he would meet Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday for the early release of the Indian PoW. Amrik said the family started efforts to find Surjit when they first heard about his being alive in 2004, but could not pursue the matter vigorously then. "At that time my wife Shinder Kaur was suffering from cancer and later died. So, we could not pursue our efforts to search him with vigour. Later my friend Ajay Mehra intensified efforts to trace my father," he said.

Mehra, a doctor in Faridkot, said Burney had lived up to his promise. "He traced Surjit within a week. He had called up on Thursday to reveal that Surjit was alive and had completed his sentence," he said. Now that her hope of meeting her husband has been revived, Kaur's only prayer these days is that Burney succeeds in his efforts to get Surjit released. She hopes she would see her husband cross over to India at Wagah soon. And though she suffers from acute joint pain, Kaur says she would walk any distance to welcome him back. "I am happy that I am not a widow and will hopefully see him in this lifetime," she said.