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Advani will take up issue of Pak prisoners in India: Burney
Leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani has assured leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney that he would take up with the Indian government the issue of Pakistani nationals.
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Leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani has assured leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney that he would take up with the Indian government the issue of Pakistani nationals, who are held in prison even after completing their jail terms.
Burney and his son Fahad, currently in India on a private visit, called on senior BJP leader Advani in New Delhi to wish him on the occasion of Diwali and to discuss bilateral relations.
"I informed Mr Advani about the cases of Pakistani nationals who were in prison even after completing their jail terms. In the cases of some individuals, they had completed their prison terms 10 or 20 years ago," Burney told PTI over phone.
Advani sought details about such prisoners and said he would take up their issue with the Indian government, Burney said. There are some 50 Pakistani prisoners who had completed their sentences in Amritsar jail alone, he added.
Burney, a former human rights minister, said Advani also spoke fondly about growing up in the Pakistani port city of Karachi before partition.
Burney said he and Advani had also discussed human rights issues, bilateral ties and steps to usher in peace between the two countries.
Burney, who played a key role in the campaign to commute Sarabjit's death sentence, was conferred the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for human rights and social justice in Mumbai on Sunday.
He said he will also inquire about Nasir Sultan, a Pakistani teenager arrested for illegally entering India to pursue his dream of a career in Bollywood.
Fifteen-year-old Sultan, a diehard fan of Shahrukh Khan, was arrested in August and is being held in Faridkot jail.
"I am very keen to learn how Nasir managed to travel from a remote area like Dir in Pakistan's NWFP to India's Punjab state. I want to find out if some human trafficking ring was involved in helping him cross the border," said Burney, who has been campaigning against human trafficking for many years.
