New Delhi: Indian national and Mumbaikar Hamid Ansari will be returning to India today after completing his three years jail term awarded by Pakistani Military court for possessing a fake Identity card he used to illegally enter Pakistan to meet a girl he met online.
Ansari who has now turned 33, reportedly went missing after he was taken into custody by Pakistani intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat in 2012.
His arrest in Pakistan was confirmed when his mother Fauzia Ansari filed a habeas corpus petition, a court was informed that he was in the Pakistan Army’s custody, and was being tried by a military court.
Though his jail term ended last week he could not return as his legal documents were not ready.
On Thursday the Peshawar High Court gave the federal government a month to complete his repatriation process. Ansari will return to India through the Wagah border.
“We have received a note from Pakistan today that they are releasing Indian national Shri Hamid Nehal Ansari tomorrow. It is a matter of great relief, especially for the family members, that six years of incarceration of the Indian civilian in [a] Pakistan jail is coming to an end,” said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.
“I know that my efforts were less and God’s grace was more,” Ansari’s emotional mother Fauzia Ansari told IndiaToday.in.
“It was because of God’s grace that I got very good people who helped me through these years. The government of India was very supportive; so was the media on both sides of the border. This couldn’t have been possible if not for the lawyers and activists in Pakistan who worked on the case,” she added.