Missing Mumbai youth serving 3-yr sentence in Pak

A Mumbai youth missing in Pakistan for the past three years and was later found in jail has been serving a three-year prison term on charges of espionage.

Hamid Nehal Ansari, 30, has been missing since November 2012. His parents Nehal Ahmed Ansari and Fauzia Ansari left no stones unturned in tracing him. 

Reports from Peshawar early January said the division bench of the Peshawar High Court disposed of the case of “Indian national” Hamid Nehal Ansari, missing in Pakistan for over three years, “after the government confirmed that he was currently in army custody and facing trial in military court.” 

Latest reports from Pakistan said Ansari was sentenced to three years imprisonment and was shifted to Peshawar central prison.

Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), which has been pursuing the case for a long time, said that country’s government should release Ansari and send him back to India since he had already served three year jail sentence. 

PIPFPD general secretary Jatin Desai said the parents of the boy had submitted a petition in the Pakistani High Commission – one addressed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and another to Army chief Gen Rahil Sharif- requesting his release.

 On November 4, 2012, Hamid flew to Kabul to attend job interviews. He then crossed over to Pakistan and reached Kohat on November 12, 2012, and had since disappeared without a trace. 

From the Facebook posts and gmail records, the parents suspect that he was in love with a Pakistani girl and must have gone there to meet her.

Three of his online friends from Pakistan -- Atta ur Rehman, Shazia Khan and Saba Khan— encouraged him to come to Kohat from Kabul.