Gurdaspur (Punjab), April 8 (IANS) He may have returned home after 27 years in jail in Pakistan, but Gopal Dass has found instant connect with Anna Hazare's crusade against corruption and says he extends his full support to the campaign.
"Hazare is doing the right thing and I extend my full support to him. There is no other solution in a country that marred by so many scams and frauds. Our politicians are the main culprits," Dass, 50, told IANS, referring to the anti-corruption campaign of Hazare, who is on a fast unto death in Delhi.
Dass has reason to be bitter.
"Nobody from India and Pakistan should fall into the trap of intelligence agencies. They are not competent and once you are caught by the police or paramilitary, nobody will come to your rescue," said Dass, 50, who crossed over from Pakistan to India Thursday.
"You should not be surprised if these intelligence agencies later refuse to recognize you or even declare you a 'dead man'. Their only aim is to get their work done by hook or crook. They are only playing with lives and do not provide any future security."
He spent 27 years in Pakistani jails.
Dass said when he was caught by the Pakistan security forces in 1984, no Indian official, either from the government or from intelligence agencies, tried to contact him.
"They just abandoned me. Nobody was bothered about me and my family back home. Even now there are around 22 to 25 Indians who are lodged in Pakistan jails despite completing their sentence. They are all leading a very depressing life and I appeal to the Indian government to do something for their relief," stated Dass.
Dass was set to be released by the end of the year. However, ahead of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's visit for the Mohali World Cup semifinal, President Asif Ali Zardari announced March 27 that Dass would be let off on humanitarian grounds.
Pakistan Thursday freed Dass from Lahore's Central Jail where he was serving his term. He crossed into Indian Punjab through the Attari-Wagah border checkpost, about 30 km from the Sikh holy city of Amritsar.
He was taken to his Bheni Mia Khan village, where scores of villagers turned out to welcome him warmly as a hero. He was taken around the village in an open jeep, garlanded and flowers showered on him.
His brother Anand Veer Dass, who had made relentless efforts for his release, is also not happy with the Indian government.
"I went from one government department to another to seek help, but nobody gave me any satisfactory reply. There was a time when they even refused to admit that Gopal was an Indian," Veer told IANS.
"Then I tried to contact Ansar Burney (Pakistan's former federal minister for human rights), but I could not meet him. However, I managed to send him a letter."
"Then one day I read in the newspaper that Burney had raised the case of my brother. Thereafter through the intervention of the Supreme Court of India, my brother was finally released," said Veer.