Court to Pakistan govt: Send 2 Punjab sons swept by floods on way home

Ludhiana: Two years after a devastating flood turned a local tragedy into an international legal saga, two families in Punjab have received the news they have prayed for: their sons are finally coming home.Harwinder Singh, 26, a driver from Ludhiana's Parjian Biharipur, and Ratanpal Singh, 25, of Jalandhar's Khaira Mustarka, were swept across the border by the swollen Sutlej River in July 2023. After serving a prison sentence in Pakistan following their arrest by border rangers, a Lahore judge has reportedly ordered their release and repatriation.A Phone Call from LahoreThe breakthrough came via a series of emotional phone calls this week. Harwinder's uncle, Harpal Singh, told reporters that his nephew called twice from Kot Lakhpat Jail to share news of a Dec 13 court hearing."The judge ordered the jail authorities to release them and send them back to India, as they have completed their sentence," Harpal Singh said. While the families are now waiting for official confirmation of a deportation date, the news has provided a glimmer of hope to households ravaged by poverty and grief.A Trail of Family TragedyThe two-and-a-half-year separation has taken a devastating toll on both families. While the men were held in Pakistan, their absence coincided with several family deaths. From Ratanpal's family, his parents, Kartar Singh and Pyaro Bai, and his brother, Ved Prakash, all passed away while he was in custody. From Harwinder's family, his father, Mukhtar Singh, died earlier this year. His mother, Surjeet Kaur, remains under severe mental distress.Sikandar Kaur, Harwinder's wife, described a household struggling to survive. "My elderly father works as a laborer to support us, but he is struggling with his age," she said. "My seven-year-old son talks to his father on the phone, but the younger one just gets sad. They constantly ask when he is coming back."Diplomatic ProcessThe duo was among six Indians arrested between July and August 2023. While Pakistani authorities initially raised allegations of smuggling, the families have maintained that the men were simply victims of the monsoon floods that breached the Sutlej's banks. Ludhiana deputy commissioner Himanshu Jain confirmed that the families' request for assistance has been forwarded to the NRI department to expedite the repatriation process through diplomatic channels.The Human Cost of the BorderFrom Ratanpal's family, his wife, Surjeet Kaur, has spent the last two years performing manual labor to support their two young children, Shalu and Gurdeep. She remains the sole breadwinner for a family that has lost almost all its senior members during Ratanpal's incarceration.The scheduled repatriation of Singh and Ratanpal comes at a precarious moment for India-Pakistan relations, as diplomatic channels remain largely frozen over long-standing territorial disputes and cross-border security concerns. While the release of "flood-drift" prisoners is often handled as a humanitarian gesture, the process is frequently delayed by the glacial pace of consular access and the rigorous nationality verification protocols required by both New Delhi and Islamabad.The initial 2023 allegations by Pakistan's ISPR—which accused the men of smuggling arms and drugs—added a layer of geopolitical friction to what their families describe as a simple natural disaster. In the current climate of "zero-sum" diplomacy, such cases often become bargaining chips in broader regional tensions. For these families in Ludhiana and Jalandhar, the fear remains that any sudden escalation in border hostilities could stall the administrative machinery required to bring their sons across the Wagah-Attari border, turning a judicial victory into a diplomatic stalemate.