Peshawar: Hamid N Ansari, an engineer from Mumbai who went missing in Pakistan three years ago while searching for a girl he fell in love with over the Internet, is reported to be alive and in custody of the Pakistan Army.
The Pakistan India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) said "it is heartening to know that young Hamid N Ansari is alive".
"We are relieved and happy to hear that he's safe. But we are uncertain of the future. We want our son to return soon," his happy father Nehal Ansari told IANS.
The Ansaris said they now hope the government would pursue the case with Pakistan. “I would be able to see my son in flesh and blood,” said Hamid.'s father
Deputy Attorney General of Pakistan, Mussaratullah Khan on Wednesday informed the Peshawar High Court that the defence ministry had informed him about Ansari who was in the custody of their army and was being court-martialled," PIPFPD India general secretary Jatin Desai said.
However, the official did not provide details what charges had been brought against the 28-year-old.
On hearing this, the divisional bench disposed of the case. The case was heard for over 18 months before the government admitted that Ansari was being held in the country.
Ansari had travelled to Afghanistan for job prospects in November 2012, Qazi Muhammad Anwar, counsel for Ansari's mother Fauzia, had told the court.
He had befriended a Kohat-based woman through social media and had crossed over into Pakistan from Afghanistan. He had been staying at a hotel in Kohat when police, assisted by the Intelligence Bureau officials, arrested him on November 12, 2012.
"The intelligence agencies arrested him from a hotel in Kohat and since then his family and friends have been unaware of his whereabouts," Anwar was quoted as saying by the paper.
He added that as per a police inquiry report Ansari was being held by intelligence agencies.
After Ansari went missing, his mother had filed a complaint at a police station in Mumbai. She had also contacted the Afghan consulate in the city. The petitioner subsequently sent an application to the human rights cell of the Supreme Court in Islamabad, which forwarded the case to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances in March 2014, the paper said.
In April, the commission directed the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Home and Tribal Affairs department to form a joint investigation team to trace Ansari.
An FIR was subsequently lodged at the city police station in Karak district in connection with Ansari's missing.
(PTI/IANS)
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