Ansari’s good intention backfired: Mom

He got carried away after being tutored by his Pakistani FB friends into illegally entering Pakistan

An IT engineer from Versova in Andheri had to pay a heavy price for his well-intentioned move to rescue a Facebook friend from Pakistan who was being married off against her wishes. Hamid Ansari (30) got carried away after being tutored by his other Pakistani Facebook friends into illegally entering Pakistan without a visa in November 2012. Mr Ansari is currently in the custody of the Pakistani Army and will be tried in a military court over unknown charges.

Mr Ansari had read a news report in Daily Express, a newspaper in Pakistan published on May 22, 2012 about his friend, a tribal girl (name withheld) from Kohat, a city in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The news said that she was a victim of a social evil Wani — a tradition in tribal areas where she was forced to accept the Jirga (tribal leader) as her spouse — a decision seen as a compensation for a family rivalry.

Mr Ansari had befriended her, along with four others on Facebook over a period of five months. The tribal girl is said to have a bachelor’s degree in education and the rest of Mr Ansari’s friends too are well-educated. One was working at two newspapers, another an MBA, while another woman was a doctor. All of them had become good friends and shared personal details of their lives.

Mr Ansari was sympathetic and on humanitarian grounds was determined to help the tribal girl. Apparently, he lied to his family that he was unhappy with his job and wanted to take up a job in Kabul. He reached there on November 4, 2012. His family couldn’t contact him after November 10, 2012.

After accessing Mr Ansari’s Gmail chats, e-mails and WhatsApp messages, his mother Fauzia Ansari (55), a Hindi language lecturer in a junior college in Mumbai, unravelled the above-mentioned story.

The chats accessed by Mr Ansari’s mother reveal his Pakistani friends had wrongly guided him to reach Pakistan via Afghanistan.

In one of the chats, Mr Ansari says, “Doosra masla visa ka he na. Visa jaldi nahi dete ye log (the second issue is of the visa they do not give it easily).” His friend, a computer designer in two newspapers in Pakistan said, “Ab dair na karo (please do not waste any more time)” In another chat, the same friend says, “You are very lazy. If I was in your place I would have done a lot (sic).”

Mr Ansari says to another friend, “I have contacted the embassy, I will let you know.” His doctor friend replied, “In these conditions, it’s difficult. Do one thing, take Afghanistan’s visa and reach Torkhum i.e. Pak-Afghan border. I will pick up in my car. (sic)” In reply, Mr Ansari expressed that he could land into trouble as the chances of getting caught was high. In reply, the doctor says, “There is no checking, its normal, I will get you in,” to which Mr Ansari replies, “Now you tell me what to do.” According to Mr Ansari’s mother, this was probably the conversation that prompted him to fly to Afghanistan.

‘Please help get my son back’

“I admit my son has made a mistake. But, his intention was clean. I apologise for his mistake. I plead to the Pakistani government to spare him on humanitarian grounds. He was misled by other people into committing the act,” said Fauzia Ansari, the 55-year-old mother of Hamid

Ansari. She went to the extent of using her blood to write a couple of lines in her letter to Pakistan’s Army chief General Raheel Sharif and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year. “Please get my son back,” it read.

The family contacted officials of High Commission of India in Pakistan on Thursday night, and were assured that they are doing their best to get Mr Ansari back. Meanwhile, despite having failed to get a visa several times, Fauzia intends to apply yet again. She wishes to see her son alive and to let him know he is not alone.

For past three years since Mr Ansari’s disappearance, his mother Fauzia has approached every concerned authority from top to bottom of the bureaucratic ladder. On Friday, she showed a file filled with copies of over 100 letters written to High Commission of Pakistan in India, NGOs, MPs. MLAs, local police, CID, home department, MEA among several others. Speaking about the collection she said, “This file is just a part of the numerous applications we have made to Indian government.” An online petition was also made which received support for Ansari from 5,500 people worldwide.

She said minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj, Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar and former MLA Krishna Hegde have been helping her in her pursuit. No one from Pakistan except for a woman journalist Zeenat Shezadi reached out to Fauzia. “She traced my son for it was like searching for a pin in a haystack. She investigated and ascertained that my son is innocent. She filed the petition in Peshawar high court on my behalf. I gave her the power of attorney to make decisions on my behalf, but she has become unreachable since August last year,” said Fauzia.

Mr Ansari’s mother also said that she has not been keeping well due to the “tension, pressure and anxiety” and was seen almost breaking into tears a number of times while giving multiple interviews to broadcast media on Friday. Her face had turned red and she said, “I am really turning mad.” On Thursday morning she learnt that her son was alive through an article in a Pakistani newspaper.