Pak hands over 'missing' Indian pilgrim

Pakistan authorities today handed over an Indian national who had gone to Pakistan on pilgrimage but was missing from his group when it returned on Saturday, officials said.

The Sikh 'jatha' had come home on April 21 after a 10-day pilgrimage but 24-year-old Amarjit Singh, a resident of village Niranjanpura in Amrtisar district, was not part of it.

Pakistan authorities later found him at the home of his "Facebook friend" Amir Razak in Sheikhupura, 50 km from Lahore, and handed him over to their Indian counterparts.

He told officials that he had gone to stay with Razak on April 16, telling his hosts that he held a visa for over a month's stay in Pakistan.

When his friend asked him to show his passport, Amarjit Singh told him that it was deposited with the Pakistani authorities, according to the pilgrim's account to Indian officials on his return.

Singh recalled that his host's family got jittery when Pakistani and Indian television channels reported on April 21 about his sudden disappearance from a gurdwara.

Indian authorities had also reported him missing after they came to know that he was not among the pilgrims who had returned.

The host family reported the matter to police, and officials from the Evacuee Trust Property Board of Pakistan took Singh to Lahore yesterday.

When asked how he had reached Razak's house, he told officials that he managed to dodge Pakistani security.

The Sikh pilgrims had gone to Pakistan to celebrate Baisakhi festival.

Amarjit Singh's passport, like that of other pilgrims, was deposited with the officials of the Evacuee Trust Property Board, who reportedly informed top officials when he failed to collect it within the stipulated time.

The Pakistani police had launched a manhunt in Nankana Sahib where a number of Sikh families live, reports said.

Kiran Bala, another member of the same group, had also not come back with the jatha, after reportedly converting to Islam and marrying a Pakistani man.

Singh had earlier reportedly worked in Malaysia was living with his family in Punjab for the last couple of months.