Burney appeals for repatriation of Pakistani man found in India after 9 years

Karachi

Ansar Burney, chairman of the Ansar Burney Trust International and a former federal minister for human rights, has sent urgent letters to the Indian prime minister, foreign minister and interior minister with the request to release and return missing Pakistani national Mohammad Irfan, who went missing after Samjhota Express blast in 2007, and has now be found in an Ambala jail after 9 years.

  In a statement, Burney said that 23-year-old Irfan visited Delhi in February 2007 to make purchases for his computer coaching centre in Pakistan.

However, Irfan was declared missing when the Samjhota Express became a target of a bomb attack, and his DNA sample failed to match any of the victims.    

But, finally after nine years, his family was told of a prisoner in Punjab jail sentenced to four years under the Passport Act after the blasts whose mental condition has since then worsened. 

Burney further said that Irfan was travelling from Delhi to Attari via the Samjhota
Express with a ticket number, 391734, and held a Pakistani passport, number KE 685195. 

He was injured in the blast and admitted to a hospital in Panipat.

Later, he was arrested under The Foreigners Act and was sentenced to four years for a crime he never committed, the statement read. 

Burney thanked activist Ashok Randhawa for his help in finding Irfan, and requested the Indian authorities to release and repatriate Irfan to Pakistan without any further delays.