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No response from Indian mission: MP boy forced to live in Pak prison
The release of Seoni boy Jitendra Arjunwar from a Pakistan prison, where he has been forced to stay even after completing her term, hinges on the pro-activeness of the Indian high commission in Pakistan, said Ali Palh, a Pak-based human rights lawyer.
The release of Seoni boy Jitendra Arjunwar from a Pakistan prison, where he has been forced to stay even after completing her term, hinges on the pro-activeness of the Indian high commission in Pakistan, said Ali Palh, a Pak-based human rights lawyer.
The high commission has, so far, been unable to act on his release and repatriation to India.
Arjunwar had run away from home in 2012
Arjunwar had in 2012 run away from his home and was caught by the Pakistan Border Security Agencies near Sindh cantonment, about 35 km from the Indo-Pakistan border, when he asked them for water. He was later sentenced to one-year imprisonment and sent to juvenile jail in August 2013.
In a conversation with HT, Palh said, “Arjunwar has been shifted to Malir Prison, Karachi. I visited the jail recently. Arjunwar is suffering from Jaundice. The jail administration has attempted to send him back to India twice but the Indian high commission did not respond.”
“The Indian high commissioner visited the jail and met inmates from India but nothing concrete happened,” he added.
We never received any response from govt agencies, says Arjunwar’s brother
Arjunwar is also a patient of sickle cell anemia.
Arjunwar’s brother, Bharat Arjunwar said, “My mother wants to see my brother. We are very poor and it’s not possible for us to make the effort of visiting the offices of politicians and bureaucrats. we have been fighting for him for the past two years but to no avail.”
“Neither the state nor the Central government has made any effort to repatriate my brother. Activists used to call us but we never received any response from the government agencies,” he added.
Ansar Burney also working to send Arjunwar back
Ansar Burney, another human right activist from Pakistan, has also been working to send Arjunwar back to India. “The Burney trust requested Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs and ministry of interior (home affairs) to deport him to India as soon as possible. But a major problem that we are facing in repatriating him is the unresponsiveness of the Indian government and his family,” he said.
Meanwhile, a Panipat-based advocate, Momin Malik, has been trying to gather information about Arjunwar from the ministry of home affairs (MHA) and the ministry of external affairs (MEA).
Malik said, “Through RTI, I have asked MEA and MHA about what they know about Arjunwar and what they have done to reunite him with his family. I will file a PIL in the in the Jabalpur high court after gathering information.”
