India demands Pakistan to release Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari

Guwahati: The Indian government has demanded Islamabad that Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari should be released immediately who is awarded a three-year prison term on Saturday. As there have always been complaints about ill-treatment of prisoners in the Pakistani jail, the demand for Indian national kept as a prisoner in Pakistan has come strongly.

Notably, Ansari was arrested in 2012 when he had allegedly entered northwest Pakistan illegally. As stated by Ansari, he had entered into the country with an objective of meeting a woman he befriended online. Ansari, on being arrested, was tried by a military court on charges of espionage and was awarded a three-year sentence in December 2015.

As stated by Indian legal experts, there is no ground for the Pakistan government to keep Hamid imprisoned for such a long time. As Hamid was arrested in 2012, he has already been imprisoned for three years and there is now no point for Pakistan to at the time of his sentencing.

Stating the matter, the external affairs ministry of India, sent a formal note to Pakistan on December 11 and mentioned about the “serious concern”. As the Indian officials are not granted consular access to Ansari, this matter has irked the Indian government.

The note also states that Pakistan had shown “no consideration” for Ansari’s pre-trial custody nor has they provided information on charges levelled against him. There have been more than 90 requests by India for consular access to Ansari, but Pakistan has not responded to any. This is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Other than Ansari, there are at least 11 other Indian prisoners that are kept imprisoned in Pakistan and none of them has been released. One person said, “There is no business for these Indian nationals to be in jail for even a day longer.”

The recent instances of Pakistan’s disinterestedness could be seen then when two prisoners from India – a fisherman and a civilian died in a Pakistani jail and the country took weeks for their bodies to be repatriated.

He added, “In one case, we found out about the death of a prisoner after a month, and in the other, we found out three months later. In these cases, we learnt of the deaths from activists who work with prisoners and only later was their confirmation by Pakistani authorities.”

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