New Delhi: Even as the Supreme Court questioned the Centre for not moving the International Court of Justice for release of 54 Indian soldiers caught by Pakistan during the 1965 and 1971 wars, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government said that it could not do so as India had earlier stopped Pakistan from doing the same.
By making the argument, the Centre has stuck to the former United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) government's stand. When asked if the prisoners of war are alive or not, the Centre said that Pakistan has never owned up their presence.
Relatives of all 54 prisoners of war have been given service and pension benefits as per the Gujarat High Court order in December 2011.
Even in the case of inhumane treatment meted out to Captain Saurabh Kalia and four other soldiers of the 4 Jat Regiment in the 1999 Kargil war, the government maintained that it cannot move the ICJ against Pakistan.
In gross violation of the Geneva Convention, the Pakistani Army had subjected Captain Kalia and his soldiers to horrendous torture during which the bravehearts’ ear drums were pierced with hot iron rods, eyes punctured and genitals were cut off. The autopsy of the bodies also revealed that they were burned with cigarettes butts. Their limbs were also chopped off, teeth broken and skull fractured during the torture. Even their nose and lips were cut off.
The Narendra Modi government had said that moving the ICJ against Pakistan in the matter is not 'practical'. Captain Kalia's family had demanded for an international probe in the Supreme Court.
The decision by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is questionable as when in Opposition, it had slammed the UPA government for not acting against Pakistan.
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