india

Updated: Dec 26, 2018 18:34 IST

Two Pakistani nationals, Mohammed Imran Warsi and Abdullah Shah, were repatriated to their country on Wednesday after serving time in Indian jails.

This comes days after Pakistan sent back Indian national Hamid Ansari after he had served six years in jails there.

While Warsi came to India to marry his distant cousin, Abdullah dreamt of meeting his hero and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

The two were handed over to Pakistan Rangers by the officials of the Border Security Force at 2:20 pm at Wagah border. Warsi went back after a 10-year jail term in Bhopal and Shah was in jail for 19 months in Amritsar.

Shah, 21, had illegally crossed over to India via Attari-Wagah border last year ostensibly to meet his favourite bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

“Abdullah entered India after witnessing the flag-lowering ceremony at Attari-Wagah border in May 2017. He had been claiming that he had entered India to meet Shah Rukh Khan,” said Amritsar jail superintendent, Arshdeep Singh Gill.

Before his repatriation, Abdullah, who hails from Swat in north-western Pakistan, said, “I will visit India again but legally now as my dream to meet my superstar has not fulfilled yet. I was given family like treatment in Amritsar jail.”

Warsi’s Kolkata-based in-laws allegedly had got him arrested in 2008 for trying to get an Indian passport using forged documents. He had been demanding a share in the property of his father–in-law

He had arrived in India on a valid visa and married an Indian woman, Shazia, in Kolkata in 2003. The couple have two sons, Farhan, 13, and Qurban, 11.

Warsi, whose family in Pakistan had presumed him to be dead, said he regrets forging the documents and added that he had learnt his lesson. “It will be tough for me to take my family to Pakistan, but I will do it the legal way,’’ he said. “I do not want to stay in India where my relatives betrayed me.”

He said negligence for his Pakistani passport and Indian visa’s expiry forced him to try and get an Indian passport. Warsi said he came to Bhopal after being told it was easy to get one made there. “…I came here in 2008 with a fake PAN card and ration card. But as I was demanding a share in my father-in-law’s property, which includes a part of the New Royal Cinema in Kolkata, my wife’s family tipped the police off.”

Attempts to reach Warsi’s wife and in-laws in Kolkata were unsuccessful.

Warsi was convicted of forgery and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The espionage charges initially slapped against him were later dropped.

Warsi said his family in Pakistan could not believe he is alive. “After my release, I called my mother in Pakistan and she could not believe that I was still alive. She asked me for my nickname, and only then did she believe me,” he said.