Hamid Ansari: Indian 'lover' finally released from Pakistani prison, returns home

Ansari was detained by Pakistan's intelligence agencies and subsequently sentenced to three years' imprisonment for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card.

Amid cheers, Ansari crossed the Attari-Wagah borders as he was greeted to the nation by his family members.

A love angle:

Pakistan had arrested the Indian national after he was accused of illegally entering the country from Afghanistan to meet a girl he had befriended online.

According to some media reports, Ansari tried to find and rescue the woman from being married off to someone else. 

Hamid: An engineer who became a teacher:

Hamid was a resident of Mumbai living with his parents Fauzia and Nehal. He had a degree in engineering and as well an MBA. He had even worked as a management teacher for the education of Afghan students, reports said.

A Facebook post on Ansari's official page read in 2015: "Hamid's dream turned into reality. He was working for the education of Afghan Students and designed a project of Faculty of Computer Science Block which is forwarded to Rotary Chairman of Afghanistan two years ago.  Hamid Nehal Ansari went to Afghanistan for same Purpose and then disappeared mysteriously."

Developments over the years:

Ansari, a 33-year-old Mumbai resident, was lodged in the Peshawar Central Jail after being sentenced by the military court on December 15, 2015. His three-year jail term ended on December 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 December 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.

Shahzadi was recovered in October 2017, but has been off the radar along with her family ever since.

Helping hands:

Some people, including External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj played a pivotal role in bringing back Ansari to India.

Mumbai-based journalist-activist Jatin Desai was one such man who had worked intensely to bring back the Indian national.

"Back in 2012, Ansari had reached out to him for his help on crossing the border into Pakistan, so that he could find the woman he had met online and fallen in love with," reported The Quint.

Desai had informed Ansari that it was an impossible step.

“I had no idea about this boy. He had made inquiries about who could help him get a Pakistani visa and he came to meet me. I had a big laugh when he told me that he wanted to marry a woman living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a place notorious for honour killings. I told him to concentrate on his career and stop being stupid," Desai told Mumbai Mirror.

After news of his arrest came to limelight, Desai, the general secretary of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), reportedly decided to work on bringing back the Indian national.

“One morning I pick up the newspaper and I see this boy’s photograph on the front page. I told myself, ‘S***, he  entered Pakistan illegally," he siad.

Desai had important contacts across the border and after contacting with Ansari's family some crucial steps were taken.

Desai and  Ansari's family worked closely as their efforts helped the case as it was taken up by Pakistani rights lawyers Rakshanda Naz and Qazi Mohammed Anwar, media reports said.

In Pakistan, rights lawyer and a pioneer of women’s rights in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Rakshanda Naz was approached by Desai and Ansari's family for getting legal help in the case related to the Indian boy.

“The media became our voice, and when we were not being heard, it was the media that raised the case, both in India and Pakistan,” said Fauzia Ansari told The Hindu, thanking what she called were “farishtas” or angels in the Indian government, and in Pakistan who had helped along the way, including human rights activist Zeenat Shehzadi, an octogenarian lawyer Qazi Mohammad Anwar, who fought Hamid’s case without charging a fee, and advocate Rakshanda Naz, who oversaw his release, providing clothes and food for the just-released prisoner.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's role in the entire episode was equally important.

After the matter was taken up to her by Fauzia, Swaraj had reportedly asked some Pakistani diplomats to look into the issue.

More than that, she has repeatedly reached out to Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan, requesting ‘consular access’ to Ansari, reported The Quint.

Speaking to The Quint, Fauzia said that the MEA had requested for consular access to Ansari at least 90 different times, a call which fell on the deaf ears of the Pakistan government.

Swaraj also met Ansari's family in 2016 and assured them all kimds of helps to bring back their child.