New Delhi, Dec 20 (IBNS): Hamid Ansari, who returned to India on Tuesday after remaining captive in Pakistan for six years, has said he blamed no one for what he underwent but himself.
Speaking to NDTV, he said: "The mistake was mine. Though my motives were good, I took the wrong step and I have paid the price for it."
"Coming to India gave me a great adrenaline rush," he said. "I am home now, in the midst of my people and in my very own country. I did not expect to get so much love upon my return, and I am thankful to the thousands who helped me on both sides of the border."
Speaking to reporters at Mumbai airport about his plans now, Ansari said: “I want to celebrate with my family, after that I will start looking for a job and only then will I marry and settle down.”
Ansari said he had learnt three lessons from his experience -- don’t trust anyone on Facebook, don’t lie to your parents and believe in your government.
The Mumbai resident, was lodged in the Peshawar Central Jail after being sentenced by the military court on Dec15, 2015.
His three-year jail term ended on Dec 15, 2018 but he was not able to leave for India as his legal documents were not ready.
A Peshawar High Court (PHC) bench on Dec 13 had directed the interior ministry to make arrangements for the deportation of the Indian national within one month of the completion of his three-year prison term on Dec 15.
The PHC bench had observed that government departments should make all arrangements before the completion of Ansari's prison term, as keeping him in detention beyond the sentence would tarnish the image of the country.
Ansari had gone missing in 2012 from Kohat. A freelance Pakistani journalist who began investigating his disappearance from Kohat, Zeenat Shahzadi, had also gone missing soon after. Her kidnapping was considered by human rights activists as a case of “enforced disappearance”.
It was only then in 2015 that Pakistan admitted to having Ansari in their custody. He was summarily put through proceeds in a military court as he was accused of espionage despite his family, back in India, crying helplessly that their son had probably crossed over from Afghanistan to meet a woman he befriended online and then fell in love with.
It later emerged that Ansari had been in the army's custody and convicted by a Field General Court Martial on charges of espionage and anti-state activities on Dec 15, 2015. He had been sentenced to three years.
He had reportedly denied the charges and claimed that he had visited Pakistan to help a female Facebook friend in Kohat who claimed to be in trouble.
Shahzadi surfaced in Oct 2017, but has been off the radar along with her family ever since.
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