Posted on 03/08/2008 2:07:04 PM PST by james500
After his release from 35 years in a Pakistani prison on espionage charges, Kashmir Singh stood at the Indian border and hugged the Pakistani Cabinet minister responsible for freeing him.
The official thought he was embracing an Indian electronics salesman who entered Pakistan without a passport on a business trip and got swept up in the suspicions and enmity that have characterized the rivals' relations for 60 years.
But three days after walking across the border to a hero's welcome, Singh told Indian reporters Friday: "I did the duty assigned to me as a spy ... I was a regular recruit. I did not open my mouth for 35 years in Pakistan."
The confession turned what was meant to be a humanitarian gesture into an international embarrassment for the Pakistani government that could imperil hundreds of prisoners on both sides held in similar circumstances.
...
In a news conference Friday in the northern city of Chandigarh, Singh described the lengths he went to to live undetected in Pakistan, including getting circumcised so he could pass as a Muslim, studying Urdu and adopting the name Ibrahim. While in Pakistan, he ate beef, which is forbidden in his Sikh religion, and fasted during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Singh said he crossed into Pakistan several times, and also conducted intelligence missions in Afghanistan and Iran.
Singh was arrested in 1973 in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. His story was that he was a trader in electronic goods traveling on business.
He was convicted of spying and sentenced to death by a military court despite repeated denials that he was a spy. The government commuted Singh's execution in the late 1970s but the case languished.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
What an idiot.
That Pakistani official is a shoe-in to be Obama’s Homeland Security czar.
kevas and trillium.
Looks like he just couldn’t help rubbing it in their faces after being held prisoner by them for 35 years.
“While in Pakistan, he ate beef, which is forbidden in his Sikh religion”
Um, Sikhs are not forbidden from eating beef, Hindus are. As far as I know, Sikhs don’t have any absolute dietary restrictions. Poor researching.
Hm, I think many Sikhs are vegetarian. And a Sikh told me once that they’re forbidden from eating “kutha” (?) food, which is food that has been prepared according to another religion’s practices, i.e. kosher & halal.
My suggestion for undoing the damage would be for the Indian government to send him back.
Sikhs don’t have any dietery specifications, per-se. However, they are very similar in eating habits as Hindus. What they are absolutely and specifically forbidden from consuming, is Halal meat, because of the Islamic rituals that the slaughter follows. It is thus considered sacrificial meat, and so, not allowed.
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