Indian software engineer returns after 6 years in Pakistan jail

Attari (Amritsar): After spending six years in a Pakistan jail, a software engineer from Mumbai was reunited with his family in India at the Attari-Wagah border on Tuesday evening.

Hamid Ansari, 33, who was arrested in 2012 for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan, was released from a jail in Peshawar on Tuesday for repatriation. He reportedly entered Pakistan to meet a girl he had befriended online.

The software engineer was subsequently sentenced to three years' imprisonment by a military court in 2015 for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card. The Mumbai resident's term ended on December 15, but he was not able to leave for India as his legal documents were not ready.

It was an emotional moment for the Ansari family when his parents hugged their son soon after he entered the Indian territory through the Attari-Wagah land route.

The 33-year-old, who was sporting a beard and wearing a cap, could be seen consoling his mother, Fauzia, and wiping her tears as she repeatedly hugged and kissed him.

Shortly before his arrival, Hamid Ansari's mother had told reporters that the prayers of the family and of all those who wished for his safe return had been answered. "I am immensely happy today. I don't have words to describe my feelings."

His father, Nihal Ansari, said, "It is a new dawn for us".