India repatriates 64 Pak nationals including school boy

Of the 64 prisoners who were sent home, 11 were released from Amritsar Jail in Punjab, 52 from a Gujarat jail and one from a prison in Rajasthan.

The 52 Pakistanis who were released from the jail in Gujarat were fishermen who were arrested when they had inadvertently entered India through the territorial waters while fishing in the Arabian Sea.

The 11 prisoners from Amritsar Jail who were set free were arrested when they were found on Indian territory near the barbed fencing on the Indo-Pak border without passport and visa.

Fourteen-year-old Pakistani school boy Nauman Arshad, who was described by the BSF as a potential suicide bomber, was also released after languishing in jail for ten months.

Arshad had accidentally crossed over to the Indian side on January 12 this year. On January 14, BSF DIG Mohammad Aquil had alleged during a press conference that the teenager had infiltrated into India with the intention of keeping an eye on activities of the BSF and other security arrangements on the Indian border.

The BSF also filed charges against him under Section 3 of the Passport Act. However, a juvenile court had quashed the FIR filed against Arshad by the BSF after his lawyer V P Singh Bhatia told the court that the boy was subjected to sustained interrogation and was forced to confess that he was a Pakistani terrorist.

The court maintained that Arshad's entry into India without valid documents was accidental and ordered that he be released.