‘Indo-Pak talks necessary for Hamid release’

Former MLA Krishna Hegde — who had worked hard to bring back Bhavesh Parmar, a man who was suffering from depression, to India after the latter spent five years in a Pakistani prison — stated there is a dire need of high-level talks between the two countries to get back prisoners like IT engineer Hamid Ansari who has been languishing in a Pakistani jail for three years now.

“After Parmar’s mother Hansaben approached me and informed that her son is suffering in a Pakistani jail for seven years I took up the issue and, after a lot of paper work, he was finally released in seven months’ time. Like Parmar, Hamid too is a prisoner of circumstance and not a prisoner of war. International agency like Red Cross or Amnesty’s help is required in such cases,” said Mr. Hegde. The Asian Age contacted Hansa Kantiben, but she said she did not wish to make any comments.

Mr Hegde is of the view that Hamid can’t be released unless there are high-level talks between India and its neighbour. “Since Mr Modi and Mr Sharif are having bilateral talks I think this issue also needs to be taken up. About 12,000 prisoners of circumstances like Mr Hamid are languishing in jails across the globe. There are several prisoners in Pakistan as well,” said Mr Hegde.

Hamid’s mother Fauzia Ansari (55) said she is receiving help from Mr Hegde, Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar and minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj. “I have full faith in Indian government. We are in touch with High Commission of India in Pakistan and also with the MEA,” said Ms Ansari. A woman journalist from Pakistan was helping Fauzia for the past two years, but since August last year she became untraceable.

In 2007, Bhavesh, a software engineer from Mumbai citizen who went into depression after his father’s untimely demise, quietly left home and reached Amritsar. He then got onto the Samjhauta express and before he knew it he was in Pakistan where he was placed under arrest for entering the country without the relevant documents.