Never had India ever refused to accept its own dead soldiers during the 1999 Kargil war.
Though I am tired of holding finger through arguments every time one of you suffers from selective amnesia, this time, I will make an exception. Hope it will refresh your memories little bit....
Two Indian soldiers handed over to ICRC
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ISLAMABAD, Sept 16: Pakistan on Thursday handed over two Indian soldiers, taken prisoners last month in an attack on the Pakistani positions across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The two Indian soldiers, Lance Naik Ram Singh No:2984373 and Sepoy Bajinder Singh No:2996593 of 3rd Rajput Battalion of 9th Indian Regiment, "were released on humanitarian grounds after ICRC certified that they were found to be in sound health," said a Foreign Office statement.
The two Indian soldiers were handed over to the ICRC officials at 9.15 p.m.
The Indian armymen were captured by the Pakistan Army during an Indian attack on Pakistani post in Shyok-Turkok Sector across the LoC in Kashmir on August 30.
"
While the Government of Pakistan has been willing to release these two Indian soldiers, the Indian government has procrastinated for nearly two weeks before agreeing to take them back," the statement said.
On Tuesday last,
when all the arrangements had been made to hand over the Indian soldiers to the ICRC, the Indian government insisted upon a last minute pre-condition that they should not be handed over to the ICRC in the presence of media. The handing over was, therefore, postponed.
"Pakistan has all along stressed the involvement of ICRC and international media in order to preempt the possibility of Indian propaganda of maltreatment of soldiers as had been done by India at the time of return of six bodies of Indian soldiers during the Kargil crisis."-APP
Source: DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending : 18 September 1999 Issue : 05/38
PoW or dead? Mystery of the missing fourth soldier
GAURAV C. SAWANT
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 18: The Government has with much alacrity revealed the recovery of the bodies of three Indian soldiers killed in action on the heights of sub-sector Haneefuddin last year but is maintaining a mysterious silence on the missing fourth. Two other soldiers who were part of the same action were captured by the Pakistan army and subsequently returned.
Even
the account of how the bodies were recovered is shrouded in mystery. While the Army officially claims that as the snow melted on the icy peaks of Turtuk, they found the three bodies, sources insist that Pakistan returned the three bodies while one soldier continues to be missing in the Pakistani-held territory.
Immediately after the Kargil conflict last year, the Army had embarked on an ambitious plan to capture dominating heights on the Line of Control (LoC). In one such operation on August 30 in sub-sector Haneefuddin, Captain Suneel Yadav and five soldiers with him crossed the LoC -- unintentionally according to the Army but what the Pakistanis say was an act of aggression -- to reach a dominating height.
A fierce gun-battle ensued and two Indian soldiers were captured by the Pakistani army. Four others, including Yadav, were declared missing by the Indian Army. ``What followed showed how callous the Indian Government was about its soldiers and barely weeks after the Kargil war,'' sources said.
Pakistan claimed it had captured two Indian soldiers and kept them as Prisoners of War (PoWs), the Indian Government refused to acknowledge it till the Pakistan army showed the two PoWs (soldiers from the IIIrd Battalion of the Rajput Regiment) on state television.
Then the Indian Government came up with the account that six soldiers had strayed across the LoC during ``routine patrolling'' and
asked Pakistan to return them at the nearest border exchange post. The
Pakistan army refused, saying PoWs were returned only through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The
ministries of defence and external affairs kept passing the buck, each asking the other to get the soldiers back.
Though the Army knew that Yadav and three other soldiers with him had been killed in action (The Commanding officer of III Rajput, Colonel S.B.N. Janardanan, had written a condolence letter to the families as early as on August 30),
the Army kept asking Pakistan to return the six missing soldiers.
The Pakistan army stuck to its guns and returned the two PoWs through the ICRC at the Wagah border.
From here the two soldiers were whisked away to the Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur. Sources said the two soldiers also confirmed that Yadav and the soldiers with him were killed in a gun-battle.
In the last fortnight, the bodies of Captain Yadav and two other soldiers were cremated with full state honours amid the popping of flashbulbs but the
Army continues to remain silent on the missing fourth soldier.
A military spokesman confirmed that one soldier of the Rajput Regiment was ``still missing'' but insisted that efforts were being made to locate him or his body. ``We have requested the Pakistan army to intimate us in case it (the body) is found across the LoC,'' he said.
