The family of an 80-year-old man who had wandered into India-held Kashmir the day before on Wednesday urged the Indian government to act quickly in response to a request for his early repatriation made by his Pakistani counterparts.
Around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Munir Hussain, who is 80 years old and has reportedly been suffering from a mental illness for the past four years or so, left his home in Gulshan Colony of Battal sector, which is located along the heavily militarized Line of Control in the Poonch district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to join his spouse Begum Jan in nearby forests where she was grazing cattle.
However, assistant commissioner of Hajira, of which Battal sector is a part, Waleed Anwar claimed that when Jan got home by himself at around 4 p.m., the family started to worry about Hussain and looked for him but were unable to find him.
“I ordered local police and other concerned officials to hunt for him not only in the jungle but also along River Poonch where I assumed he may have gone to beat the heat,” he told Dawn.com. “They approached the concerned Sehra police post at about 10pm.”
But on Wednesday, it emerged from a few Indian news websites that Hussain had entered the occupied zone “illegally” and was captured by an Indian army patrol.
He was found to have no evidence against him, and initial interrogation revealed that he “may have crossed the LoC inadvertently,” according to the Indian media sources.
Liaquat Hussain, Hussain’s nephew, told Dawn.com that his uncle, who battled hypertension and mental health issues, might have lost his way while hiking through the jungle to see his wife.
He urged the Indian authorities to return him home through the Tetrinote crossing point as soon as they got a request from this side for it.
According to Assistant Commissioner Anwar, he has already forwarded a report to higher authorities requesting that the necessary steps be taken to ensure Hussain’s prompt return home.
According to officials, AJK residents who live near the unmarked border frequently stray when gathering medicinal plants and herbs, chopping fodder, or herding cattle, getting into problems on the other side of the divide.
Two days after she had unintentionally entered the Rajouri region of the occupied zone, on May 21, Nasreen Fatima, a resident of AJK’s Kotli district, was deported by the Indian authorities via the Tetrinote crossing point.
