BHOPAL: Wang Qi, an 80-year-old former surveyor of Chinese Army, who was waiting since five months in native China to reunite with his family in Madhya Pradesh -- has finally managed to get a multi-entry visa from the Indian Embassy in Beijing to travel to India.
Confirming the development, Wang Qi alias Raj Bahadur's son Vishnu Wang told The New Indian Express over the phone that his father was granted the Visa from the Indian Embassy in Beijing at 12 noon on Thursday.
Vishnu, however, regretted that unlike in February 2017 and March 2018, when his father was granted a year-long multi-entry visa, this time multi-entry visa of six months validity only has been granted. "My father had applied for one year multi-entry visa, but has been granted six months visa only," Vishnu regretted.
Vishnu along with his family and two sisters Anita, Asha and kin lives in Tirodi area of MP's Balaghat district.
Importantly, it took almost 48 years for the former Chinese Army surveyor Wang Qi – who was captured while crossing into India in 1963 a few months after India-China War– to reunite with his siblings in China in February 2017.
He spent seven years in various jails of India between 1963 and 1969 before being released on a court order in 1969. Subsequently, he was rehabilitated in Tirodi (Balaghat) where he married Indian girl Sushila Mohite, who died in October 2017.
He last returned to China in October 2018, but five months later his second multi-entry Visa expired in March 2019. Since April this year, he has been trying to get his visa renewed, but his efforts went in vain, despite having applied for it twice.
The New Indian Express had reported the story on August 30, 2019.
“Sustained efforts of 48 years saw my father reunite with his brothers in China in February 2017, after the Indian government issued him a multi-entry visa. After the visa expired in March 2019, he has been trying for renewal since April 2019, but his efforts fructified on Thursday. He'll be with us soon,” said son Vishnu, an accountant in Tirodi (Balaghat).
Qi is presently residing in Xianyang town. Qi, who joined China’s People’s Liberation Army in 1960 as a surveyor, had strayed into Indian territory while surveying for building roads in China in 1963.