Wife’s efforts yield result as J&K cop is home from Pak jail

Dinesh Manhotra 

Tribune News Service 

Jammu, June 22 

The fiesty Sukhvinder Kour was for once at a loss for words when she got wind through the media that among the four Indian prisoners released by Pakistan today on humanitarian grounds was her husband.

A constable in the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Sohan Lal Choudhary had inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan on May 11, 2014, while working in his fields on the International Border. His village Gulabgarh is a stone’s throw from the border near the Suchetgarh post.  

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“We have been eagerly awaiting this news for more than three years. I have no words to express my feelings,” Sukhvinder Kour said. 

Sohan Lal was taken into custody by the Pakistan Rangers and was shifted to Lahore Jail, where he was lodged till his release today.

“As Sohan Lal was mentally disturbed during those days, he had mistakenly crossed the border three years back,” she recalled. Since then, it has been a persistent struggle for Sukhvinder to meet anyone who could be of help to get him back home, and to keep alive the issue. 

“We  approached all forums,” she said, adding that it was all due to the media’s constant pressure that the authorities worked assiduously to secure his release. 

“We met politicians, officials and senior BSF officers,” she said, expressing her gratitude to the Border Security Force for effectively taking up the issue with the Rangers.

When Sohan Lal had crossed over to Pakistan, his younger daughter Mahima was in UKG and elder one Anjali in Class IV. Anjali, who’s now in Class VII, had written to PM  Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for help in getting her father home. 

The other prisoners repatriated via the Attari-Wagah border were Suraj Ram, Mohammad Maqbool Lone and Abdul Majid.