1. Home
  2. Jailed in Pak on charge of spying, Indian techie Hamid Ansari finally returns home

Jailed in Pak on charge of spying, Indian techie Hamid Ansari finally returns home

News Network
December 19, 2018

Chandigarh/Mumbai, Dec 19: It was an emotional reunion with his parents when 33-year-old Hamid Nehal Ansari, an Indian software engineer, entered India through Punjab's  Wagah-Attari border with Pakistan, after six years on Tuesday evening.

He had languished for years in a Pakistani jail after being caught while entering the neighbouring country and being charged with "spying".

As soon as he entered, he hugged his parents - Nehal and Fauzia Ansari - and all three knelt, bowed down to touch the Indian soil in reverence.

His brother, Dr Khalid Ansari, too was there to receive him.

On Monday, Hamid was released after completion of his prison term and repatriated to India.

On Wednesday, he is expected to visit New Delhi and then after a brief stopover would proceed for Mumbai. A resident of Jogeshwari western suburbs of India, he had entered Pakistan in 2012.

Love gone wrong

Ansari’s story is of love gone wrong, for which he had to pay a price. Ansari’s parents and family members waited with bated breath at the border. As Hamid walked his way from Pakistan, he hugged his mother tightly. Tears rolled down his father’s eyes as he stood speechless.

As the family walked further away from the Pakistan border, Hamid’s mother Fauzia kept her hands tightly wrapped in her son’s arm refusing to let go of him. As she choked out of emotion, Hamid gave her water to drink. Hamid was then taken by the authorities concerned for necessary questioning and documentation.

The Mumbai resident was arrested by agencies in Pakistan in 2012 after he allegedly entered northwest Pakistan illegally to meet a woman he befriended online. He was tried by a military court and given a three-year sentence for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card on December 15, 2015.

Panacea

Hamid’s release comes close on the heels of the opening of the Kartarpur corridor with Pakistan, viewed as a panacea for the animosity between the two nations. The techie went missing after being reportedly taken into custody in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa area. His mother had filed a habeas corpus petition through Pakistani lawyers after details of his whereabouts emerged.

For the sake of his love, Hamid went to Pakistan without a visa. He forged documents to enter Pakistan. His mother said, Hamid’s release is a victory for humanity. The ministry of external affairs had raised the issue of Ansari in a formal communication sent to Pakistan on December 11 amid apprehensions that he would be held for a longer period.

"Finally Hamid arrived...," Jatin Desai, general secretary, Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), said.

"The parents' resolve and patience was one of the major aspects....their prayers have been answered," he added.

Hamid, who had gone to Kabul, Afghanistan for a job interview in November 2012 was befriended on Facebook and got close to a Pakistani girl.

Hamid was believed to have reached Kohat in Pakistan in an attempt to save this Facebook friend, who reportedly was being forced to marry someone twice her age following a Jirga decision.

Hamid crossed over from Afghanistan border in Jalalabad to Peshawar, Pakistan - where he was caught by the Pakistani agencies.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 15,2020

Vishakhapatnam, May 15: LG Chem on Thursday said following the gas leak at its Visakhapatnam polymers plant, the company has started support measures and has begun the transportation of the Styrene Monomer inventory to South Korea to eliminate all risks factors.

The company would continue to work with government agencies to ensure all possible support for bereaved families and victims, LG Polymers, a step-down firm of LG Chem, said in a statement.

"We confirm the status-quo of the plant remains completely controlled by all measures. We have begun the transportation of the Styrene Monomer (SM) inventory within the plant as well as in the styrene tanks at the port by vessels to South Korea to prevent and eliminate all risks factors," the statement said.

The South Korean chemicals giant has sent an eight-member team from Seoul to investigate the Visakhapatnam gas leak incident and rehabilitate the victims of the tragedy that killed at least 11 people and forced the evacuation of thousands.

"The team of production, environment, and safety experts are currently investigating the cause of the incident and already supporting responsible rehabilitation which is their main objective," the statement said.

Furthermore, the team is working closely with related authorities to analyze the cause of the incident, prevent a recurrence, and support damage recovery in a prompt and expedient manner, it added.

On the support measures, the company said a special task force is currently supporting the bereaved victims and families and visiting them at the hospitals and their homes.

Besides, food and medical services have been organized for the returning residents. Various support activities such as supplying medical and household goods and sanitation of homes will be continued, it said.

"We assure everyone we will do our best to resolve the situation and prevent any incident in the future," the company said.

The company further said that "our teams will carry out mid-to-long-term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects that can contribute to the local community based on suggestions of the residents.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
July 29,2020

If everything goes as Russia’s expectation, it will be world’s first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine for widespread in the second week of August despite safety and efficacy concerns, according to a report. The adenoviral vector-based vaccine developed by Russian military and government researchers is currently in phase 2 trials.

According to a report from CNN, Russian officials are hoping to get approval for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute on Agust 10 or even before that. The officials told the outlet that the vaccine will be approved for public use with frontline healthcare workers receiving it first.

“It’s a Sputnik moment,” said Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is financing Russian vaccine research, referring to the successful 1957 launch of the world’s first satellite by the Soviet Union, according to CNN.

“Americans were surprised when they heard Sputnik’s beeping. It’s the same with this vaccine. Russia will have got there first,” he was quoted as saying.

However, Russia is yet to release the scientific data on its coronavirus vaccine trials, hence, questions remain about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, said the report. The vaccine is in the second phase of testing with developers planning to launch the phase 3 trials sometime after August 3.

Earlier, Interfax reported, citing Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, that the vaccine will be widely used in parallel with phase 3 trials. He said the country plans to vaccinate medics who are at high-risk for COVID-19 next month before clinical trials are completed.

Murashko added that individuals at higher risk of getting infected with the coronavirus such as older people or those with health conditions will also be prioritised for the vaccine, although he did not estimate or reveal when that would happen. The minister added 800 people will be recruited for the phase 3 trials.

Meanwhile, health officials were more cautious considering the fact that human testing of the vaccine is incomplete, and the state registration is expected to begin after August 3, reported The Moscow Times.

On Monday, Moderna and Pfizer announced the commencement of the final phase 3 trials of their candidate vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has so far claimed at least 654,477 lives and infected 16,514,500 people worldwide. 

Researchers will recruit up to 30,000 volunteers in separate trials both backed by the US government. India's first indigenous coronavirus vaccine, COVAXIN, is undergoing phase 1 human clinical trials across the country. More than 150 COVID-19 vaccines are being developed all over the world with at least six candidates already in late-stage clinical trials.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 18,2020

New Delhi, Jun 18: With the highest single-day increase of 12,881 COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's coronavirus count has reached 3,66,946 on Thursday.

This includes 1,60,384 active cases and 1,94,325 cured, discharged and migrated patients, according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

Meanwhile, with 334 deaths being reported due to the infection, the toll due to the virus stands at 12,237 in the country.

There is a big increase in the number of confirmed cases in the country today as compared to the recent days when the spike had been limited to under 11,000 cases.

Maharashtra with 1,16,752 cases continues to be the worst-affected state in the country with 51,935 active cases while 59,166 patients have been cured and discharged in the state so far. The toll due to COVID-19 stands at 5,651 in the state.

The number of confirmed cases in Tamil Nadu also crossed the 50 thousand mark on Thursday and reached 50,193. The national capital is the third-worst affected by the infection in the country with the count reaching 47,102 today.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.