Two jailed Pakistani women, 11-year-old in India await return to homeland

AMRITSAR - As two Pakistani women and an 11-year-old girl, born in Amritsar jail, continue to stay in a transit camp of Amritsar Central Jail even after completing their sentences, their advocate has approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention to ensure the freedom of the trio, especially the 11-year-old girl Hina, who is in jail without any fault.

Talking to Times of India over the phone from Gujranwala, Saiful Rehman said, "I appeal to thع Indian government especially External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to intervene and send my daughter, wife and sister-in-law back to Pakistan as soon as possible".

Fatima and Mumtaz were arrested on May 8, 2006, at Attari international border after they were allegedly found smuggling narcotics into India. Both of them were sentenced to ten and half years which had completed on November 2016. Court had also slapped a fine of Rs 2 lakh each and in the case of non-payment of fine both of them had to serve another two years of imprisonment.

At the time of her arrest, Fatima was pregnant and gave birth to Hina in jail.

Saiful, father of seven, including Hina, still believe that his wife and sister in law are innocent and is of the view that they were probably lured by a fellow passenger to carry narcotics. "I am a small worker in a confectionery factory, my in laws are very simple people, I don't know how it happened," he said.

President of Batala based NGO, Humanity Club, Navtej Singh regretted that despite paying the fine about five months ago, Hina, her mother and aunt were still in jail. "The very purpose of depositing the fine is defeated and with the pace of file moving, it may take many more months." He said if the girl and other two Pakistani ladies were not released soon then they would stage a demonstration in front of the office of deputy commissioner.

"We had deposited Rs 4 lakh rupees on April 6, 2017 and were assured that all three of them will be released immediately but they are still in jail, but it has not happened so far," he said. Meanwhile Hina, through her mother's counsellor Navjot Kaur Chaba, has written a letter to prime minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention for speeding up her mother and aunt's file clearance process.