Released spies in penury
May start agitation
From Navjot Sidhu

AMRITSAR, Oct 23 — "What should we do? The intelligence agencies have treated as like dogs for their own purpose when they needed us to spy for them after crossing the border. We spent prime time of our life in jail and have got nothing at the end. It was better if we had spent the rest of our lives in jail in Pakistan. This is the lament of spies who were pushed back via the Rajasthan border in 1986 after having spent about 15 years in jail.

Intelligence agencies have been recruiting able and intelligent persons for work and imparting proper training to them before sending them on a mission. Generally, youths are recruited from border areas as they are familiar with the topography and language spoken across the border. The role of spies attained importance after the Indo-Pak war of 1965.

But these spies, who do risky jobs and put their life at stake for the nation are jailed when caught by the enemy and forced to lead a miserable life due to the "indifferent attitude" of the agencies who are quick to disown them.

As many as 150 spies who were made to cross the border by Pakistan via Rajasthan in 1986, were totally ignored by the intelligence agencies who themselves had made them cross the border to gather information for them. At present, these spies, who almost spent half of their lives in jails in Pakistan, are doing petty jobs for survival.

Having no other alternative, they have decided to start an agitation against the government to get justice and create awareness among boys who fall in the trap of these agencies for money but get nothing at the end.

Mahinder Singh, Kabul Singh Balwinder Singh, Dalbir Singh and Balbir Singh, who were among the 224 persons sent back to India via the Rajasthan border, told this correspondent that they had come to their homeland after more than 10 years but no intelligence agency came to help them and, instead, turned a deaf ear to their sufferings.

They said they worked for various intelligence agencies and at that time were paid good money. After being trained, they were made to cross the border to gather information and were promised that their families would be looked after. They paid money to the family members only for a short while and then were left on their own, whereas these spies were caught in Pakistan and remained in jail for about 15 years. Now when they are back, they are forced to do petty jobs for survival.

There are still hundreds of persons languishing in jails and while they are fighting for their survival in jails across the border, their families are struggling here to make both ends meet.

"We feel bad. At least, they should have given us jobs for survival. When we approached them, they ignored us and now we have been forced to come on roads and would soon begin a nationwide agitation to get justice," the spies said.