HimVani
Shimla (Aug 18): Major (retd) Onkar Singh Guleria, a resident of Jachh village of Nurpur in Kangra district, has filed a PIL before Himachal Pradesh High Court seeking justice for the families of Late Capt Saurab Kalia and other who were subjected to barbaric treatment by the Pakistan army and murdered before the Kargil war.
Seeking justice in favour of Capt Kalia and five other jawans, who were captured by the Pak army on May 15, 1999 & latter their mutilated bodies handed over to
Indian Army on June 9, 1999, the petitioner made the Union government of India (PMO/Foreign Secretary/Secretary Defense), Chief of Army Staff and chief secretary of Himachal Pradesh, as respondents.
The petionrers alleged that the soldiers’ bodies were burnt with cigarettes, eyes punctured, teeth & bones were broken and various limbs & private organs of these soldiers were chopped off. Their status as Prisoners of War (PoW) was not informed by the Pakistan Army to India.
Gularia stated that while the government expresses concern about human rights violations in other countris, in case of its own soldiers, except for lip service
(General VP Malik, then the COAS, promises to take up the matter with GoI) the high officials have been passing on the buck from the Army to the MEA, to PMO & MoD, but nothing has been done by anyonein the last twelve years.
An RTI application of Nov. 17, 1999 by Dr. NK Kalia received no response from MEA, and on April 17, 2000, the PMO merely wrote to the Joint Secretary office, dealing with UN issues in the MEA, but to no avail.
In 2001, Dr. NK Kalia was not permitted to meet General Pervaj Musharaf (Pak president) when whole media met him at Agra. Putting a question mark on the intention of then PM & GoI, the petioner has asked what the government of India has been doing in this regard.
He prayed before the HC to direct the Union of India to place on record all
action taken to contact Pakistan government and the United Nation in this matter.
