LAHORE: Pakistan has lodged a protest with the Indian government on account of killing of two
Pakistan nationals by the Indian security forces in Jalandhar district of Indian Punjab.
India announced recently that its security forces killed two Pak nationals along with a Babbar Khalsa International leader Bhai Talwinder Singh in an encounter that allegedly took place near Kang Arayan village in Phillaur sub tehsil of Jalandhar district. The names of the Pak nationals given by Punjab police chief K.P.S. Gill were Habibullah son of Hamidullah and Intikhab Ahmed son of Maqbool Ahmed beth of Lahore. The police chief claimed that the identity of the dead Pakistanis had been ascertained from their passports which they carried. The numbers of passports are H-822669 and E-090996
Intikhab Ahmed Zia’s relations wife, mother and brother-in-law alleged at a press conference here that Zia had been in Delhi for onward journey to Nepal and the far-cast and was arrested by the Indian authorities on May 28 from the New Delhi airport. He was administrative officer in a private hospital at Lahore and had gone to India to purchase hospital equipment Initially, his arrest was on grounds of keeping more U.S. Currency than permitted but subsequently was shown to have been indulging in terrorism in Punjab along with Sikh militants, according to Zia’s brother-in-law Javed Iqbal. He was travelling on legal documents and a valid transit visa.
Javed said the Indian government when contacted first denied that Zia had been arrested, But the Pakistan embassy officials in Delhi later found out that Zia had been lodged in Kanpur jail where he had been kept for five months, Suddenly he was flown to Jalandhar for the so-called encounter along with the other accused,
Zia’s relations criticised the Pakistan government for its failure to properly follow up the case with the Indian government. The relations said that they were refused visa to visit India by the Pakistan government. Had they been allowed to go to India, they would have convinced the Indian government about Zia’s innocence, The Pakistan government was not Cooperating even to bring Zia’s body to Lahore. “We depended on Pakistan high commissioner Riaz Khokhar and a foreign office authority G.R Malik to secure my innocent son’s release but were let down,” Zia’s father told the media persons.
While Pakistan later made a formal protest to India for killing wo innocent Pakistanis in an fake encounter, political observers here are speculating about the real Motives of the Indian government in climinating the wo Pakistanis along with a top Sikh militant leader, Talwinder Singh,
India has so far failed to produce any convincing material to link the two Pakistanis in the politics of Indian Punjab. In its absence, it could only be surmised that Delhi really wants to take political mileage out of the death drama to show to the world that the movement in Punjab was not indigenous but had been inspired from abroad, in this case not only by the two Pakistanis but also by a Canadian Sikh. Or, in the alternative, Delhi is keen on provoking Pakistan into some kind of retaliation to escalate tensions between the two Countries, In any case, the killings: have already contributed to injecting further bitterness in the Indo Pak relations.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 30, 1992
