“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” I found this famous quote generally attributed to Mahatma Gandhi quite relevant in the backdrop of unprovoked attacks on prisoners in Pakistan and India. Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national convicted in Pakistan for bomb blasts in 1990, was fatally attacked by fellow prisoners in Lahore jail.
A few days later, Sanaullah Haq, a Pakistani national imprisoned in an Indian jail since 1999 for terrorist activities in Indian-Kashmir, was brutally attacked by a fellow prisoner.
Is this insanity and lunacy going to stop with these two incidents? Civil society of both Pakistan and India has got two choices: Keep quiet and let all the prisoners be attacked and die one by one, or come out and condemn this madness in clear and loud terms and don’t let right-wing parties on either side of the border hijack this unfortunate spate of hatred.
Apart from many people imprisoned for terrorist activities, there are hundreds of fishermen who are wasting their youth languishing in either country’ jails for crossing international waters by mistake. We want these innocent fishermen to go back to their families before it’s too late. — Masood Khan, Jubail
Plight of prisoners
