Indian prisoner Hamid Nihal Ansari released by Pakistan after 6 years
Pakistan on Monday released Indian prisoner Hamid Nihal Ansari, who was detained by the country’s intelligence agencies in 2012 and subsequently sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by a military court in 2015 for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card.
“Ansari is being released upon completion of his sentence and is being repatriated to India,” Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said.
He claimed that Ansari was an “Indian spy who had illegally entered Pakistan and was involved in anti-state crimes and forging documents.”
#NewsAlert – According to sources, Pakistan will release the Indian national, Nehal Hamid Ansari, who went missing tomorrow. Ansari closer to freedom after the CNN-News18 campaign. Ansari was lodged in Pakistan jail for 6 years. | @AnchorAnandN with more details pic.twitter.com/MiDHTT98NC
— News18 (@CNNnews18) December 17, 2018
Dr Mohammad Faisal, the spokesperson of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) tweeted, “Hamid Ansari, an Indian spy who had illegally entered Pakistan and was involved in anti-state crimes and forging documents, is being released upon completion of his sentence and is being repatriated to India.”
Ansari, a 33-year-old Mumbai resident, was sentenced by the military court on December 15, 2015. His three-year jail term ended on December 15, 2018 but he was not able to leave for India as his legal documents were not ready.
Ansari had been lodged at the Peshawar Central Jail in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where he was attacked multiple times by fellow jail inmates. In August 2016, Ansari’s lawyer told the Peshawar High Court that his client had been attacked by fellow prisoners at least three times over the course of a few months.
Ansari went missing after he was taken into custody by Pakistani intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat in 2012 and finally in reply to a habeas corpus petition filed by his mother, Fauzia Ansari, the high court was informed that he was in custody of the Pakistan Army and was being tried by a military court.
