Awais Sheikh, a human rights activist based, has decided to take up the cause of another Indian, Bhavesh Kumar Parmar, languishing in a prison in Lahore. Awais, who earlier facilitated the release of several prisoners including Surjeet Singh from jail in Pakistan, would move the court for orders to the government to release Bhavesh, according to a Times of India report.
The 32-year-old software engineer from Vile Parle has been lodged in Central Jail in Lahore for eight years. Awais Sheikh said that he had prepared the draft of the petition and would approach the court soon.
Bhavesh Parmar had gone missing from Mumbai. The mother Hansa Kantilal Parmar had learnt about her son’s whereabouts in 2008. Four years later, she received a letter from her son through Ram Rajji, who had been earlier lodged in a prison in Pakistan where he met her son.
Awais Sheikh said that Bhavesh’s family members told him that he was depressed after the death of his father. In depression, he boarded a train to Amritsar and managed to reach Lahore by Samjhauta Express, the peace train plying between the two countries on the international route. He was detained in Pakistan.
Bhavesh was a bright student and took up a job after completing education from NIIT. “He loved his father and started cursing himself after family faced financial trouble following his father’s death,” said Hansa. Hansa had left him home and had gone to her maternal place to perform some rituals. There she learnt about Bhavesh’s disappearance from Mumbai.
The mother learnt that her son was in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore. Some policemen approached her with the information in October 2008. She wrote to the Home Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs for help. A year later, she learnt another confirmation about her son’s whereabouts.
The government told her that a team of Indian High Commission officials had met her son.
WELL-CONNECTED SUPPORT SYSTEM:
Hansa is fortunate to have cultivated a keen support system to secure his release. The network now comprises activists, lawyers and Good Samaritans spanning the United Kingdom, Pakistan, the Indian Punjab right down to the Vile Parle building where she lives.
Last week TOI met Hansaben at her fourth floor apartment in Subhash Lane and within a few minutes, a diligent neighbour, Kamlesh Shah, telephoned her to determine the identity of her visitor. Residents of Kamla Terrace, where Hansaben has lived for years, keep a lookout for the welfare of the 57-year-old widow.
Parmar’s married daughter lives in the western suburbs but, with two little children to care for, she is scarcely able to frequent government offices to fight for her brother’s release. Yet, the lady who at first felt handicapped by inadequate exposure to official machinery and international relations has slowly found people who are willing to rally around to help.
“Earlier this year, I received a letter from journalist Neeraj Sharma who informed me that my son was in Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore. Sharma had interviewed a batch of Punjabi prisoners who were released at Wagah and one of them, Ram Rajji, passed him a chit of paper upon which my son had scribbled our address,” Hansaben says.
A friend of Bhavesh came to her aid and telephoned the reporter, who, in turn, put him through to Ram Rajji who gave the details.
Soon, Parmar’s neighbour Bharat Vora, who is currently in the Britain, began writing letters to the Indian embassy in Pakistan, the local police as well as government officials, requesting them to hasten Bhavesh’s release. A neat portfolio was soon created.
Vora chaperoned her to the offices of the local MP and MLA. As the network widened, activists across the UK, Pakistan and India like Jas Uppal, Awais Sheikh and Jatin Desai reached out to help. Another neighbour, Samir Shah, offered his email address for all correspondence. The Shahs own an office on the ground floor of Kamla Terrace while Parmar lives on the fourth floor.
“We tried shouting out news to one another for a few days but I felt guilty because that is their workplace. So now I visit the office every Saturday afternoon where the Shahs give me printouts of the week’s emails and facsimile correspondence that arrives from different parts of the world,” Hansaben says.
Another neighbour on the second floor receives emails for her too, and this is easier to read out from the balcony.
