Htderabad, March 27: He is a “guest” whom the Andhra Pradesh Government dearly wants to get rid of but both it and the Centre are in a bind.
His country disowns him, his wife claims he is innocent and the Government has no choice but to continue taking good care of him, providing him with daily meals, newspapers and accommodation.
Almost 12 years after this ISI-trained Pakistani militant was arrested by the Hyderabad police for planning to bomb places of worship to foment communal trouble in the city, Muhammad Saleem Junaid continues to be a “guest” of the Government.
Sources told Express that reminders were still being sent to the Ministry of External Affairs office in New Delhi to take up Junaid’s deportation with Pakistan Embassy, though the latter has already told MEA that “Junaid does not belong to Pakistan”.
“For years, there has been no word on Junaid but we keep sending reminders anyway. Perhaps, they end up in the dustbin. Till such time as something begins moving, we have no option but to take care of him,” the Government says.
Junaid, who was lodged in Cherlapally prison, was acquitted in 2006 and was subsequently shifted to a detention centre in Vishakapatnam where he still remains.
Then 37, the resident of Jhelum district in Pakistan had sneaked into the country in 1997. His arrest the following year led to the seizure of several kg of RDX besides other material. Trained by the ISI, he was working for the Lashkare- Taiba (LeT).
Junaid’s wife, Momina Khatoon, lives in A Battery Lane, behind Shantinagar police quarters. Their two children study in a madarsa.
Any stranger who knocks on their door is looked upon with suspicion.
“Who sent you?” asks an angry relative, Aslam, when this correspondent asks after Junaid and his deportation.
“We are not interested in talking about it and it is of no use,” he snaps.
Soon after his release from Cherlapally prison in 2006, Junaid, in an interview to Express, had voiced fears about his country disowning him.
“In case Pakistan ditches me, I would like to settle down in Hyderabad,” he had said then.
—Agencies