Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party on Friday moved an adjournment motion in state Assembly and demanded bringing back mortal remains of Jammu resident Chamel Singh from Pakistan.
JKNPP leader Harshdev Singh moved an adjournment motion in Assembly to suspend the business of the House and discuss the aftermath of Indian government’s failure to bring back Chamel’s mortal remains.
“We demand the return of the body of Chamel to his family living in border belt of Pargwal area in Jammu district”, said Singh. Chamel was about to complete his five-year imprisonment on charges of espionage, has died in a Pakistani jail, amid reports that he was “mercilessly beaten” by prison staff two days before his death.
“His body was not returned to his family in J&K. When we raise the demand for handing over the body of anti-national elements, Government of India has failed to bring back the body of a nationalist from Pakistan”, he said.
Chamel Singh, who had inadvertently crossed into Pak side after he went missing in 2008 from his border village Praghwal in Jammu district, was beaten by the Kot Lakhpat’s jail staff including senior officials after they objected over using of a water tap for washing clothes on January 15th following which he was admitted in Jinnaha Hospital, Lahore where he died after a couple of days.
Deepak Singh (20), son of deceased has appealed to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to intervene to bring back the body of his father from Pakistan so that the family could perform his last rites. “My father had gone missing in 2008 and we had no trace of his whereabouts, the family had thought that he had met with some accident and died until we received a letter from him in July, 2012 written from Pakistan proving that he was alive”, said Deepak. PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti said that the government should bring back his body and hand over it to the family. (PTI)
