ISLAMABAD: A day after announcing the release and repatriation of Indian citizen Hamid Nehal Ansari, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said that the convicted spy would be sent back to India today via the Wagah border.
Dr Faisal added that Ansari would be sent back to his country between 1pm to 3pm.
According to jail officials in Mardan, Ansari amid tight security left from Mardan jail for Lahore. Ansari’s lawyer Qazi Anwar also confirmed the release of his client.
“I talked to the superintendent of Mardan jail and he informed me that Ansari was released at 7:25 am from the jail and shifted to Lahore in high security,” Anwar said, adding that his client would be handed over to Indian officials at Wagah border around 3pm.
Anwar added that his client’s mother, Fauzia, had told him that his family was also reaching the border to receive Ansari, as they were meeting him after many years.
The Foreign Office spokesperson on Monday had announced Ansari’s repatriation. The Indian national completed his three-year sentence for espionage and other crimes on Saturday.
Ansari was taken into custody by the police and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials in Kohat in November 2012 and was later court-martialled by a military tribunal. He was convicted and sentenced to three years in jail in December 2015. He was lodged in the Peshawar central jail.
The Peshawar High Court last week directed the interior ministry to ensure his deportation within a month of the completion of his sentence.
Earlier reports said Ansari had, during the course of his trial, confessed to illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan for espionage and maintaining multiple Facebook and email accounts. Sensitive documents were seized from his possession.
Ansari’s family claimed he entered Pakistan through Afghanistan for meeting a girl he had befriended online.
He had initially gone missing from Kohat in 2012. Three years later, the defence ministry — in response to a habeas corpus petition filed by his mother — acknowledged that he was in custody and was being court-martialled.
