Repatriated Indian national Hamid Ansari arrived at his residence in Mumbai on Thursday, 20 December, six years after he was arrested in Pakistan.
Hamid Ansari, the Indian national who was released from a Pakistani jail and returned to India on Tuesday, 18 December, met with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the national capital on Wednesday, 19 December.
Ansari, who was released from Mardan jail on Tuesday, had been detained by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies in 2012 for illegally entering the country from Afghanistan, reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online.
- Pakistan claimed that Ansari was an “Indian spy who had illegally entered Pakistan and was involved in anti-state crimes and forging documents”
- In 2015, he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by a military court for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card
- Ansari’s jail term had ended on 15 December but he wasn’t able to leave for India as his legal documents weren’t ready
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Hamid Ansari Arrives at His Home in Mumbai
Repatriated Indian national Hamid Ansari arrived at his residence in Mumbai on Thursday, 20 December, six years after he was arrested in Pakistan.
Hamid Ansari Arrives in Mumbai
Hamid Ansari arrived at the Mumbai airport on Thursday, 20 December, after meeting External Affairs Sushma Swaraj upon being released by Pakistan.
“After six years, when I saw them (his family) I was still in Pakistan. They were crying and spreading their arms while Pakistani authorities were completing paperwork with me and I kept asking them to speed up. I just ran towards them (family) and fell on my knees, 'Ammi mujhe maaf kar de'. I was asking for forgiveness from everyone," he told India Today in an interview.
The Mumbai resident, who returned to India after crossing the Wagah-Attari border, was imprisoned in the Peshawar Central Jail after being sentenced by a military court on 15 December 2015.
'Experience in Prison Was Both Good and Bad': Hamid Ansari
Speaking to CNN-News18 after his return to India from Pakistan, Hamid Ansari said his experience in the prison was both good and bad.
“The experience (in prison) was good and bad, I would say. Because six years was a long duration. And in this long duration, even if you live with an enemy, and you keep looking at him, at a time you start developing sympathy for the person… So at times there were people who treated me good, and at times there were people who treated me bad [sic]. ”Hamid Ansari to CNN-News18
Ansari further told the news channel how happy he was when he heard the news of his release.“The ground was not in my feet. I was flying, I was in the air [sic],” he said.
Asked about his plan for the future, Ansari said it will be decided by his parents. “Whatever planning I did in the past, it destroyed everything,” he remarked.
Hamid Ansari Meets MEA Sushma Swaraj
Hamid Ansari, after returning from Pakistan after six years, met with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the national capital. According to ANI, Ansari’s mother told Swaraj, "Mera Bharat mahaan, meri madam mahaan, sab madam ne hi kiya hai (My India is great, so is my madam (Swaraj). Everything has been done by her.) "
Ansari reached Delhi early morning on Wednesday, 19 December. He told reporters upon reaching that he is really happy to get back home.