HC issues notice to Centre on a petition by 71 war soldier's

Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notice to the Centre on a writ petition filed by a woman, seeking repatriation of her husband -- a solider of 1971 war-- from Pakistan.
The HC bench of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain issued notice to the Ministry for External Affairs and BSF for November 11 while acting on a petition filed by Angrez Kaur, resident of Faridkot.
She has sought direction to get her husband, Surjit Singh, a constable in BSF, who was captured by Pakistani Army during 1971-war on December 4, 1971, repatriated, said petitioner's counsel H C Arora.
However, the BSF authorities presumed him to have been killed in the war in Chhamb Sector, he said.

Among other evidence, the petitioner relied upon a statement given by Pakistani Human Rights activist Ansar Burney on April 28, 2011, in Pakistan to a newspaper claiming that constable Surjit Singh of India was in Pakistan Jail, after he had completed 20 years imprisonment, Arora added.
The petitioner also stated that in 2004 too there were news reports that her husband was being released but on going to border to receive him, she found that one Makhan Singh, who was undergoing imprisonment in Pakistan, had been repatriated to India, in the assumed name of Surjit Singh, said Arora.