Freed Indian national Hamid Ansari meets Sushma Swaraj
New Delhi, Dec 19 (IBNS): With tears in his eyes, Indian national Hamid Ansari, who was freed from a jail in Pakistan on Tuesday, met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday.
Sharing video footage of the meeting on his Twitter page, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted: " Welcome home, son! Indian national, Hamid Ansari returns home after six years of incarceration in Pakistan. EAM @SushmaSwaraj warmly welcomed him in Delhi today."
Welcome home, son!
— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) December 19, 2018
Indian national, Hamid Ansari returns home after six years of incarceration in Pakistan. EAM @SushmaSwaraj warmly welcomed him in Delhi today. pic.twitter.com/vM4HXF2ORc
Ansari crossed the border and reached India on Tuesday.
Ansari, a 33-year-old 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 was recovered in Oct 2017, but has been off the radar along with her family ever since.
Image: Video grab from Raveesh Kumar Twitter page
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