Kin await Mumbai man's return from Pakistan jail

MUMBAI: Relatives and supporters of 33-year-old Versova engineer Hamid Ansari are hopeful of his return from a Pakistani prison once his three-year sentence ends December 16.
The I-T professional was arrested after he crossed over to Pakistan's Kohat region from Afghanistan in November 2012 to rescue a woman friend from a "forced marriage".
On Wednesday, Ansari's ailing mother Fauzia, who has waged a long battle for his release, said to TOI, "I have a prayer on my lips and fingers crossed in the hope that my son will return home to us soon.We have received the help and goodwill of so many NGOs and mediapersons, and I am hopeful that the Pakistani government will release him since there is no reason to hold him back once he has served his term. Hamid was naive to cross the border at the instigation of friends who told him that a girl's life was in danger. But he has not harmed anyone. He had no ulterior motive. We are godfearing people who have suffered so much. May the Almighty end our trial soon." Hamid's father Nehal Ansari, who gave up his job as a banker in the aftermath of the incident, echoed her prayer.
Hamid Ansari has spent the last six years in incarceration. A military court in Pakistan sentenced him to three years in jail in December 2015, but the punishment did not include the time he had already spent in prison. Earlier this year in August, the Pakistani government had committed before the Peshawar high court that Ansari would be deported to India at the end of his sentence in December 2018. Meanwhile, the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD) has appealed to Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan to release Ansari at the earliest. A plea signed by Dr Syeda Hameed, Tapan Bose and Vijayan MJ of PIPFPD's India chapter said, "Hamid Ansari's immediate release will send a positive message as it will come in the background of the opening up of the Kartarpur Corridor. We and other campaigners have maintained that while Ansari violated the Passport Act, etc. he is innocent of the kind of charges that were made against him." Ansari had been accused of espionage by the local authorities.
The NGO said, "Ansari should be released and repatriated the same day (December 16) or the following day via the Wagah border. We laud Pak PM Imran Khan for his valuable gestures towards making peace with India and in the region. We appeal to him to make sure that in Hamid's case too, a humanitarian approach is followed."