The February month of 2019 will be considered as the black month in Indian history. In this ill-fated month, we not only lost more than 45 CRPF Jawans in dastardly Pulwama terror attack but now our one of the fighter jet pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman is captured by Pakistan yesterday.
In retaliation to Pulwama terror attack India launched an air strike and destroyed a number of terror camps ran by terrorist groups Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahedin and Lashkar-e-Taiba across LoC. The other day Pakistan reacted to the strike three of its jet fighters attacked India, while Indian Air Force’s planes were resisting them one of the fighter planes shot down. It drifted towards Pakistan border and got crashed. Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman survived in the crash but got captured by the Pakistan Army.
His capture is being seen as a major setback for India. The government has demanded his immediate release and people are praying for his safe return.
But do you know apart from Abhinandan, there are 54 soldiers who are believed to be alive and imprisoned in various Pakistani jails? Yes, they are known as ‘The Missing 54’. They have been given a status of missing in action or killed in action in 1971 Indo-Pak war by the government. Pakistan has denied the existence of any Indian POW’s of 1971 Indo-Pak war.
One of these prisoners of war is pilot Manohar Purohit who was captured in 1971 war. His son Vipul Purohit told they have evidence that his father is imprisoned in a Pakistani jail. Currently, Pakistani jails have 17 Army officers, 12 Sepoy, 24 Air Force officers, in total they are 54. The list of names of these soldiers/officers and their respective service units is given below:
Indian Army
Lieutenants
- Lt. Vijay Kumar Azad – IC-14457 (1/9 The Grenadiers)
Captains
- Capt. Ravinder Kaura – SS-20085 (Med Regiment)
- Capt. Giri Raj Singh – IC-23283 (5 Assam)
- Capt. Om Prakash Dalal – SS-22536 (The Grenadiers)
- Capt. Kalyan Singh Rathod – IC-28148 (5 Assam)
- Capt. Kamal Bakshi – IC-19294 (5 Sikh)
- Capt. Vashisht Nath
- Capt. DS Jamwal – 81st Field Regiment
- Capt. Washisht Nath Attock
Second lieutenants
- 2nd Lt. Sudhit Mohan Sabharwal – SS-23957 (87th Lt. Regiment)
- 2nd Lt. Paras Ram Sharma – SS-22490 (The Grenadiers)
Majors
- Major SPS Waraich – IC-12712 (15 Punjab). It was reported that he was shot shortly after being taken prisoner.
- Major Kanwaljit Singh Sandhu – IC-14590 (15 Punjab)
- Major Suraj Singh – IC-18790 (15 Rajput)
- Major Ashok Suri – SS-19807 (5 Assam)
- Major Jaskiran Singh Malik – IC-14457 (8 Rajput Rifles)
- Major SC Guleri – IC-20230 (9 Jat)
Subedar
- Sub. Assa Singh – JC-41339 (5 Sikh)
- Sub. Kalidas – JC-598 (Jakli)
Naik Lieutenant
- Lt. N. Jagdish Raj – 9208735 (Mahar Regiment)
- Lt. N. Hazoora Singh – 682211303
- Lt. N. Balbir Singh Pama – (SBS Chauhan)
Havildar
- Lt Hv. Krishna Lal Sharma – 13719585 (1 Jat Rifles)
Gunner
- Gnr. Sujan Singh – 1146819 (14 Field Regiment)
- Gnr. Pal Singh – 1239603 (181 Lt. Regiment)
- Gnr. Madan Mohan – 1157419 (94 Mountain Regiment)
- Gnr. Gyan Chand
- Gnr. Shyan Singh
Sepoy
- Sepoy Daler Singh – 2461830 (15 Punjab)
- Sepoy Jagir Singh – 2459087 (16 Punjab)
Indian Air Force
Wing commander
- Wg Cdr. Hersern Singh Dandoss – 8160-F(P) (32 Sqn)
Squadron leader
- Sqn Ldr. Mohinder Kumar Jain – 5327-F(P) (27 Sqn)
- Sqn Ldr. Jal Manikshaw Mistry – 5006-F(P)
- Sqn Ldr. Jatinder Das Kumar – 4896-F(P) (3 Sqn)
- Sqn Ldr. Devaprasad Chatterjee
Flight lieutenant
- Flt Lt. Sudhir Kumar Goswami – 8956-F(P) (5 Sqn)
- Flt Lt. Vijay Vasant Tambay – 7662 –F(P) (32 Sqn
- Flt Lt. Nagaswami Shanker – 9773-F(P) (32 Sqn
- Flt Lt. Ram Metharam Advani – 7812-F(P) (JBCU)
- Flt Lt. Manohar Purohit – 10249(N) (5 Sqn)
- Flt Lt. Tanmaya Singh Dandoss – 8160-F(P) (26 Sqn)
- Flt Lt. Babul Guha – 5105-F(P)
- Flt Lt. Suresh Chander Sandal – 8659-F(P) (35 Sqn)
- Flt Lt. Harvinder Singh – 9441-F(P) (222 Sqn)
- Flt Lt. LM Sassoon – 7419-F(P) (JBCU)
- Flt Lt. Kushalpal Singh Nanda – 7819-F(N) (35 Sqn)
- Flt Lt. Ashok Balwant Dhavale – 9030-F(P) (1 Sqn)
- Flt Lt. Shrikant C Mahajan – 10239-F(P) (5 Sqn)
- Flt Lt. Gurdev Singh Rai – 9015-F(P) (27 Sqn)
- Flt Lt. Ramesh G Kadam – 8404-F(P) (TACDE)
- Flt Lt. Pradeep Vinayak Apte
Pilots
- Flg Offr. Krishan L Malkani – 10576-F(P) (27 Sqn)
- Flg Offr. KP Murlidharan – 10575-F(P) (20 Sqn)
- Flg Offr. Sudhir Tyagi – 10871-F(P) (27 Sqn)
- Nav pilot Lt. Cdr. Ashok Roy
- Plt Offr Tejinder Singh Sethi
In 1979, this list was presented in the Lok Sabha by that time’s
Minister of State of External Affairs, Samarendra Kundu.