JOIN USAfter eight years of waiting punctuated by hope and despair, Hansa Parmer, a resident of Mumbai, will finally see her 32-year-old son Bhavesh, who will be released from a Pakistan prison on Thursday.
However, the good news of Bhavesh’s release has come with the mixture of apprehensions about his failing health. A software engineer by profession, Bhavesh has been forced to overstay in the prison due to repatriation logjams.
Hasna Parmer will reach the Attari-Wagah border check post to be with her son on Thursday. She said Bhavesh had slipped into depression and left home after the death of her husband. In a confused state of mind, he boarded a train to Amritsar and eventually landed in Lahore through Samjhauta Express- the peace train plying between the two countries. In Pakistan, he was detained, arrested and sent to jail.
“I am relieved today. I am happy to learn about his release. Pakistan foreign office confirmed that he would be released on October 25. I will be at the border post to receive him tomorrow,” Hansa said.
Pakistan-based human rights activist Awais Sheikh has been key to the release of the Mumbai lad from the Pakistan jail.
Earlier in 2008, some hope gleamed for Hansa when some policemen informed her of her son’s existence with some sketchy details. She immediately wrote to the Ministry of Home and Ministry of External Affairs asking for help. A year later, the government told her that a team of Indian High Commission had met her son in a jail in Pakistan.
But it was in February this year that Hansa received a hurriedly scribbled letter by Bhavesh from the jail informing her about his whereabouts. The letter was forwarded by a fellow prisoner Ram Rajji who called up Hansa and told her that Bhavesh had slipped a piece of paper in his hand requesting him to give it to her.
Hansa said Congress MLA Krishna Hegde, who received the information about Bhavesh’s release through the Indian High Commission, would also be accompanying her to Attari border.