Repatriated Indian national Hamid Ansari says “Never fall in love on Facebook,” I learnt this lesson that one should never hide anything from their parents, even if they scold you. I should have never been swayed by emotions. There is a legal process for everything and I should have followed it,” Hamid added.
On November 5, 2012, the IT engineer and a management graduate had left India to take up a job at Kabul airport in Afghanistan. He entered Pakistan illegally after falling in love with a girl on Facebook.
He was sentenced to imprisonment in Peshawar Central Jail for three years on December 15, 2015, when he went to Pakistan to meet a woman he had befriended through social media. He returned to India on December 18 after completing a three-year prison sentence in a Pakistani jail.
He reunited with his family at the Attari-Wagah border on Tuesday evening. His mother, Fauzia Nehal Ahmed Ansari, who called her son’s release “a victory of humanity”, said that he had no “bad intentions”.
Hamid stated that “When our government was convinced that Hamid Ansari is innocent, I was confident that I will return home.” He said he plans to retire from Facebook, a “waste of time”. “I have wasted six years of my life, now I want to get my life back on track.”
“I still remember that following the election in 2014, I was hoping that Mrs Swaraj gets the charge of the external affairs ministry. As soon as she was appointed, I went to meet her in Delhi. There were many people who had come with bouquets and sweets to congratulate her, and I had just gone with tears in my eyes. I told her my ordeal and gave her a letter. She promised that she would help me and she stood by her promise,” said Hamid’s mother Fauzia while thanking External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for her help.
[source_without_link]Indian Express[/source_without_link]