Pakistan is releasing Indian national Hamid Ansari from prison

Islamabad / New Delhi: Indian national Hamid Nihal Ansari was released from a Pakistani prison on Tuesday to be repatriated to India, six years after being arrested by the country’s security services and then sentenced to three years ‘ imprisonment for possessing a false Pakistani identification card, according to a media report.

Hamid Ansari, a 33-year-old resident of Mumbai, was lodged in the Central Jail in Peshawar after being sentenced by the military court on 15 December 2015. His three-year sentence in prison ended on 15 December 2018, but he was unable to leave for India because his legal papers were not ready.

On Thursday, the federal government was given a monthly deadline by the Peshawar High Court to complete his repatriation process.

The Indian national was released from Mardan jail on Tuesday and was transferred to Islamabad for his onward journey to India, reports state-run Radio Pakistan.

After being taken into custody by Pakistani intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat in 2012, Hamid Ansari was missing, and finally, in response to a habeas corpus petition filed by his mother, Fauzia Ansari, the high court was informed that he was in Pakistan Army custody and was being tried by a military court.

He entered Pakistan from Afghanistan, allegedly to meet online with a girl he had friended.

Pakistan says that Hamid Ansari was “an Indian agent who had entered Pakistan illegally and engaged in anti-state crimes and forging documents.”

An appeal filed by Hamid Ansari via his lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar was heard on Thursday by a two-judge Peshawar High Court bench, comprising Justice Roohul Amin and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan.

Anwar informed the bench that he was completely silent about his release and deportation to India by both the Ministry of Interior and prison authorities, where he was lodged.

After learning this, Justice Khan asked the Additional Attorney General to clarify how they would hold the prisoner in jail until his sentence had ended.

An officer, representing the interior ministry, informed the court that while the legal documents were being prepared a prisoner could be kept for one month.

The court, after knowing the legal position, directed the ministry to make all arrangements to release and deport the prisoner within a month.