NEW DELHI: Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari's parents' long struggle for being reunited with their son, who was arrested by the Pakistan Intelligence agencies and local police from Kohat district in 2012, may bear fruit today.
The Pakistan Foreign Ministry on Monday announced to repatriate Hamid on the completion of a three-year sentence handed over to him by a Pakistani military court in 2015.
"The Pakistan High Commission has told us that the Pakistan authorities will hand over Hamid to the Indian Embassy there today, following which he will cross the border and be reunited with us," Fauzia Ansari, Hamid's mother said.
The family, however, has not been apprised of the exact time when Hamid will reach India. "I would like to thank the Indian government for understanding our pain and extending complete help to us in bringing our son back. Even the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi helped us out and were responsive to our ordeal," Ansari opined.
Hamid's mother further appealed to the Pakistani government to free other individuals like her son who have been imprisoned, underscoring the painful experience the family went through due to his detention in the neighbouring country. "Their parents are also waiting for them and suffering," she stated.
Expressing gratitude to the government and media for helping her out, she said, "This wasn't our effort alone - the media was our voice and the government completely helped us. We can't thank god enough. Both the governments have been kind to us and dealt with us humanely. We thank everybody."
"Hamid will be with us today hopefully. I pray to God that he will be," she remarked while travelling in a bus en route to Attari-Wagah border, through which Hamid would be repatriated.
Hamid, a teacher at the Mumbai Management College, went missing in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in November 2012. His mother filed a habeas corpus petition in Delhi High Court, following which the news about his arrest became public.
On January 13, the high court was informed that Hamid was in the custody of the Pakistani Army and was being tried by a military court. The Pakistani security agencies had claimed that Hamid had used fake identity card in the name of "Hamza" and had entered Pakistan through Afghanistan without travel documents. They had charged him for "anti-state activities".