Pakistan repatriates young Indian prisoner

New Delhi: Pakistan, on Thursday, repatriated an ailing 20-year-old Indian prisoner, who had crossed into Pakistan unintentionally five years earlier, on humanitarian grounds.

Jitendra Arjunwar, suffering from thalassemia, was released from Karachi’s juvenile jail and was flown to Lahore. He was later handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah border.

Arjunwar was under treatment at the juvenile jail for having thalassemia before being transferred to district jail Landhi where all the Indian prisoners are kept since January 2015.

Arjunwar, a resident of Indian’s Madhya Pradesh, had entered Pakistan from the Rajasthan border on August 12, 2013, following an argument with his family and had drifted inside Pakistan searching for water. He was kept in Hyderabad jail after being sentenced to a one-year imprisonment by the court and shifted to Karachi on completing his jail term in 2014.

Later, efforts by human rights activists of Pakistan and India led to his identification as Indian citizen, setting in motion his repatriation. “He has been handed over to his family”, a communication by the police to director general of MP police, Rishi Kumar Shukla, on Thursday said.