Life & death on border

The tragic death trail of Sarabjit Singh epitomises the way youth in the Punjab border villages have been going astray. “Whether the young boys go across the border looking for jobs or in some case for spying, it is sheer wastage of their life that becomes aimless and goes haphazard,” said Jaswinder Singh, a government official in the village.

He named three other persons, including Balbir Singh in a nearby village, who had similarly crossed over. “But they have been lucky to have come back alive,” he added.
Born on March 19, 1962 in Bhikhiwind, located around six kms away from the Indo-Pak border,  Sarabjit passed his tenth class from the government senior secondary school in the village and thereafter started doing menial work to fend for himself.

In 1984 he got married to Sukhpreet Kaur and had  two daughters – Poonamdeep Kaur and Swapandeep Kaur, but had nothing much to make his both ends meet.. “He started hankering after his others looking for a job,” said Kulbir Singh, a village elder, who had close association with Sarabjit’s father.

In August 1990 when he strayed into the Pakistan territory reportedly in an inebriated condition, it was within a fortnight that he was taken into custody in Lahore.

His elder daughter was three while the younger one was just one year old when Sarabjit started his horrendous journey at the hands of the Pakistan authorities.

For the family members Sarabjit was as good as having been lost for ever till 2005 when the family heard from Sarabjit, by a letter from the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore, saying that he was about to be hanged in Pakistan.

It was at this juncture that his sister, Dalbir Kaur, joined hands with the members of the Sarabjit’s family to wage a struggle for his release from the jail..

Satwinder Singh, a village panch, regretted that the Central government was not aggressive enough trying to protect the life of Sarabjit.

Dalbir Kaur kept pleading that Sarabjit was a case of mistaken identity in Pakistan and that he was not Manjit Singh allegedly involved in two bomb blast cases. “Sarabjit was mistaken for Manjit,” she had alleged preparing the ground for his release from the jail.

In one of his letters to his sister Sarabjit had said he would be back to the heavens in case he could come back to his native place, dead or alive. Alas ! it was his journey back in a casket.

Many more Sarabjits to be saved, says sister
Bhikiwind (Tarn Taran): Almost 23 years after he disappeared from his village only to resurface in jail in Pakistan as a death row convict, Sarabjit Singh’s body  was consigned to the flames on Friday. His sister Dalbir Kaur, who lit the pyre, soon after said that she had found a new mission in her life. “Henceforth, I would be fighting for so many other Sarabjits languishing in the Pakistan jails,” she said.

While the funeral evoked lukewarm response from the locals, hordes of politicians including Rahul Gandhi,and chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, stood in the attendance.  After the death of Sarabjit, a pall of gloom descended on Bikhiwind village. People started gathering at his house to console the family. Shops and other commercial establishment were closed in the village, home to around 11,000 people.