Abandoned Indian spies seek rehabilitation package

Gurbax Ram, a spy from Ferozepur district, Punjab, said he has spent 16-years in a Pakistani jail on charges of spying and on his return the nation abandoned him and offered nothing.

“We serve the nation and live or die unsung. We want our due,” he said. There are many like Gurbax Ram who are now seeking a rehabilitation package from the government. The Punjab government going all out to honor Sarabjit Singh, an Indian prisoner on death row killed by inmates in a Pakistani jail, has created a controversy.

Many former spies who have been denied relief and live a life of poverty now plan to launch an agitation for their rights and honor. These spies and their families who gathered in Chandigarh on Monday have formed the Espionage Victims’ Association and are seeking adequate rehabilitation package.

The plan also includes peaceful protest in the national capital with support from several individuals who share the feeling of alienation and abandonment.  

They said they were tortured in Pakistani prisons and claimed that intelligence agencies that sent them across the border for seeking vital information abandoned them once they were caught.

Sarabjit Singh is the only spy whom the government declared a martyr and gave his family Rs 1 crore as relief.

Karamat Rahi, a former spy who spent 18-years in Pakistan, said on Monday that he had sought rehabilitation from the intelligence agency but to no avail. 

“I am fighting a legal battle and my appeal for compensation and recognition is pending before the Supreme Court,” he said. Gaurav Sagar Bhaskar, son of Mohan Lal Bhaskar, from Ferozepur said his father spent over six-years in Lahore jail for espionage.
“My father was released in 1974 following the intervention of Harivansh Rai Bachchan, who was a reader in the Swiss Embassy,” Gaurav said.