Pinning her hopes on what a released prisoner of war told her two decades ago, a 68-year-old Sikh woman will be catching the Samjhauta Express on Friday to search for her husband -- last heard of in 1972 airing a message over Radio Pakistan that he was held captive. Nirmal Kaur from Nanak Nagar area, who left for New Delhi on the Shalimar Express from Jammu on Tuesday night, is among the 13 relatives of missing soldiers from the 1971 war to have been cleared by Pakistan's foreign ministry to visit its jails.
"All of them have been permitted to visit 10 jails in Pakistan for a fortnight to search for their relatives," officials said.
They said Kaur was accompanied by her son, who would see her off on the Delhi-Lahore peace train on June 1 and was also carrying photographs given to her by relatives of 6 other soldiers gone missing since the war.
Her husband, Subedar Assa Singh of the Sikh Regiment, has been reported missing since then and the family believes it has enough evidence to claim he is held a prisoner of war in that country and alive.
She said one Manohar Lal from Ranbir Singh Pura, who was released from a Pakistani prison in 1988, had sought her out and told her husband was languishing in the jail.
She said her husband had aired a message on Radio Pakistan in 1972 that he had been taken prisoner.
After news of her visit to Pakistan being cleared, people whose family members were also reported held captive there approached her with photographs of the missing soldiers.
They all have their fingers crossed that she may bring back glad tidings.
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