STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Admonishing the lackadaisical attitude of the Central and State BJP led governments towards the Indians killed in Pakistan jails, Rajesh Padgotra Provincial President JKNPP along with the families of the victims lambasted the Saffron Party for playing with the sentiments of the people only for the electoral gains.
Talking to reporters here today, Padgotra revealed that on 11th May 2014, Sohan Lal Choudhary, son of Garu Ram Choudhary, resident of Gulabgarh, Suchetgarh, who was mentally unstable, inadvertently crossed the Zero Line while working in the fields. He further disclosed that the gullible villager was taken into custody by the Pakistani Rangers whose whereabouts were still unknown and lambasted the BJP for grossly failing to negotiate with the Government of Pakistan to facilitate his return.
Padgotra said that there were many Indians like Sohan Lal who had been languishing in Pak jails whose families were running from pillar to post with all efforts in vain.
Expressing his resentment over the Central and State Governments for not taking the case of Chamail Singh seriously, Padgotra recalled that the convicted Indian who was a resident of village Pargwal in Akhnoor was brutally murdered in Kot Lakhpat Jail in Pakistan and his family was still struggling for justice.
The NPP leader maintained that recently Kripal Singh a resident of Amritsar was also brutally murdered in Pakistan jail whose vital organs were disemboweled from his body.
He said that Punjab Government had accorded him the status of a martyr and provided compensation of Rs. 25 lakh to his family.
While citing the example of Sarabjeet Singh who was also killed in Pakistan whose family was compensated with Rs. 1 crore 25 lakh by Punjab Government, Padgotra lamented that BJP led governments in the Centre and the State had failed to accord the status of a martyr to Chamail Singh and paid no heed to pay a single penny to the family of the deceased so far.
He further said that it was an irony that the BJP which garnered huge mandate of the people during the Assembly elections had only played with the sentiments of the people only for electoral gains by doling false promises to provide justice to Chamail Singh.
Padgotra exhorted the BJP partnered government in the State to facilitate the return of Sohan Lal Choudhary and accord martyr status to Chamail Singh along with adequate compensation to the family of the deceased at par with Sarabjeet Singh. He said that BJP has succumbed to the dictates of the PDP for the lust of power adding that if the BJP failed to take stern steps to the demands of the victim families, then Panthers Party shall resort to agitation course and oppose, expose and depose the Saffron Party for its perfidious and treacherous character.
Others present were Khajur Singh, Inderpal and the family members of Sohan Lal and Chamail Singh.
