India's dead war hero listed alive in Pakistan

PORTRAIT OF COURAGE: Suman Purohit believes her husband will return home one day.

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Keywords: Pakistan, Flight Lieutenant Manohar Purohit

Udaipur: Flight Lieutenant Manohar Purohit, an Indian Air Force officer, was killed in the 1971 war and was declared a martyr. The dead hero maybe alive though, for a list of prisoners of war (POWs) Pakistan released in 1996 has Purohit’s name.

Purohit’s wife, Suman, says her husband has been held captive in a Pakistani jail for 37 years because the Indian government has forgotten him. “He put his life at stake for the country in the war, so the Government must care for him and speak (to Pakistan) about him,” she says.

After Pakistan released the POW list 12 years ago, Suman has been struggling to free her husband. She has repeatedly contacted authorities in the Indian and Pakistani governments but didn’t get much help.

“I have visited prisons in Pakistan but the records there were in Urdu and I didn’t understand what was written,” says Suman

Purohit’s ancestral home in Sadari village of Udaipur is deserted but neighbours have not forgotten him. The village has set up a committee which is building up a campaign to secure Purohit’s release.

“We want concerted efforts to be made to bring POWs home so that they can life a life of honour. We want to build a movement to free POWs from Pakistani jails,” says Om Prakash Sharma, Protest Committee, Secretary'

The spirited media and public campaign for Indian prisoners Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in Pakistan, and Kashmir Singh, who was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf, has given Suman hope that someday her husband will return home too—alive.