Sampla’s nephew seeks Centre’s help in sending Pak boy home

Finally, efforts have begun to reunite a 17-year-old deaf and mute Pakistani boy, languishing in the Bal Sudhar Ghar juvenile home for the delinquents since November, 2015, with his family.

Finally, efforts have begun to reunite a 17-year-old deaf and mute Pakistani boy, languishing in the Bal Sudhar Ghar juvenile home for the delinquents since November, 2015, with his family.

Sources said Ashu Sampla, nephew of Hoshiarpur MP and Union minister Vijay Sampla, has met home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi and sought his help in the teenager’s repatriation. Singh is learnt to have directed his office to process the case.

The Pakistani boy was apprehended by the Border Security Force (BSF) in Dera Baba Nanak sector in Gurdaspur after he illegally crossed over to the Indian territory from Pakistan.

The boy was sent to the juvenile home in Ram Colony Camp, but his speech and hearing impairment prevented the trial from making any headway. Nobody even knows his name as the boy, who seems to be unlettered, cannot write his name, even in Urdu.

Officials and politicians, including Sampla, who have been visiting the observation home often, were aware of the boy’s presence, but never made any attempt to help him go back to his country. Sampla, who is also the secretary of Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha, has, however, now taken it on himself to mobilise the government to contact the Pakistani government to locate the boy’s family.

Sampla said he would also file a plea with the juvenile justice board, Gurdaspur, to seek permission to meet the boy.

The superintendent of the observation home, Naresh Kumar, said the boy was well-mannered and always wore a smile on his face. “We will be happy if he is proved innocent and sent back to his home,” he added.