After spending five years in a Pakistani jail, A 22-year-old Indian who accidentally strayed into the neighbouring country returned to his home in Barghat in Madhya Pradesh's Seoni district on Sunday. Jitendra Arjunwar had strayed into Pakistan in 2012 when he ran away from his home to visit Ajmer. He was given a warm welcome by his mother and sister.
Suffering from “sickle cell anemia” disease, which requires regular blood transfusion, Arjunwar was lodged in Karachi central jail. His release was made possible by the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy, which took up the matter when Arjunwar was about to be released from jail in June 2014 but failed due to the lack of citizenship documents.
On his return to his village, Arjunwar refused to speak on his stay in Pakistan. Authorities who accompanied him from the Pakistan border to his home said that he is severely ill and not in a position to speak much.
Social activists from both sides of the border joined the movement when it was known that Arjunwar had accidentally strayed into Pakistan. He was initially mistaken to be a spy and sent to Hyderabad jail in Sindh province of Pakistan.
Several human-rights activists, led by Jatin Desai and including Haya Zahid, Ansar Burney, Ali Palh, Haya Emaan Zahid and Altaf Khoso and journalists Beena Sarwar and Allah Bux Arisar joined the campaign to free Arjunwar and last month, the government of India accepted that Arjunwar was an Indian citizen. Since then, the process to facilitate his return to India started on the level of the governments of the two countries.
Jitendra Arjunwar (centre) after his arrival in India | Supplied
Arjunwar is from a very poor family in Barghat. When his family was informed about his return from Pakistan, they did not even have money to go up to the Wagah border to receive Arjunwar. It was the Seoni police that collected Rs 10,000 from citizens and sent one police inspector along with the brother of Arjunwar to fetch him from the Pakistan border.
According to sources, Arjunwar was given special care, and thereby kept alive, in the Pakistan jail because he was suffering from the acute disease of sickle cell anemia. He was taken care of by jail authorities when it was known that he suffers from a rare disease.
Arjunwar reached Wagah border on Thursday where he was received by Indian authorities and his brother Bharat. He was immediately taken in a ambulance to Amristsar for an initial medical check-up and treatment.
He was brought back to his home from Amritsar by his brother and a local police officer.