Indian national Hamid Ansari returns home after 6 yrs

Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari, who was arrested eight years back after he came to Pakistan to meet a woman he had befriended through social media, has returned to India after completing his three-year prison sentence in Pakistan jail.

It was an emotional reunion for the Ansari family at the Attari-Wagah border on Tuesday, whose long struggle ended and eventually their efforts bore fruit.

His mother, Fauzia Nehal Ahmed Ansari, who called her son's release "a victory of humanity", said that he had no "bad intentions".

"My son went with noble intentions. Hamid had no bad intentions, but initially went missing and was later caught and framed. He shouldn't have gone without a visa. His release is a victory for humanity," Hamid's mother told ANI on Monday.

Ansari was awarded three-year imprisonment by a military court in December 2015 after being slapped with charges of espionage and involvement in anti-state activities on him.

The court gave the verdict after Pakistan's Ministry of Interior appraised it that Ansari will be repatriated to India after completion of his prison term on December 15.

The Pakistani security agencies had claimed that Hamid had used fake identity card in the name of "Hamza" and had entered Pakistan through Afghanistan without travel documents. They had charged him for "anti-state activities".

A former teacher at the Mumbai Management College, Ansari went to Pakistan in 2012 to meet a woman whom he had befriended through social media. Ansari went missing after he was apprehended by the Pakistan intelligence agencies and local police from Kohat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan in November 2012.

His mother filed a habeas corpus petition in Delhi High Court, following which the news about his arrest became public.

Following the news of his release, India on Monday welcomed Pakistan's decision to repatriate him, saying that it came as a "great relief for the family members".

"We have received a note from Pakistan today that they are releasing Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari tomorrow. It is a matter of great relief, especially for the family members, that six years of incarceration of the Indian civilian in Pakistan jail is coming to an end. We hope that Pakistan would respond and organise an early visit of the Joint Judicial Committee so that the issues of prisoners can be dealt with in a humanitarian and timely manner," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a statement.