Pakistan releases Hyderabad techie after jail term for crossing border illegally

Representational Image | Pic/AFP

A Hyderabad-based IT professional, who was arrested by Pakistani authorities for illegally entering their country four years ago, was released by the neighbouring country and brought back here, Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar said here on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old Waindam Prashant along with another person was arrested by Bahawalpur police in April 2017 for crossing the border without any papers and authorised documents.

Later a video of him purportedly saying that he was in Pakistani prison while trying to go to Switzerland to meet his girlfriend, was found in social media sites.

When he did not return home, his father Babu Rao lodged a complaint with the Madhapur police.

After his son's video went viral, Babu Rao approached Sajjanar who in turn wrote to the State government and Ministry of External Affairs seeking his extradition from Pakistan.

"After serving his sentence in Pakistan, he was handed over to Indian Immigration Authorities at Attari border yesterday.Today we brought him to Hyderabad. We handed over Prashant to his family members," Sajjanar said at a press conference.

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Prashant thanked the Telangana government and External Affairs Ministry for their efforts to bring him back.

I did not expect that I would come back to India so soon. I owe a lot to the Telangana government and the Centre," he said.

Replying to a query, he claimed he was beaten up by the Pakistani Police, but did not want to find fault with them as they were suspecting him initially.

He said he was treated well in the Lahore prison by Jail authorities and inmates.

Prashant said there is a land route to Switzerland via Pakistan which will take about 60 days.

To another question, he claimed he was subjected to questioning for several days by Pakistani army personnel who suspected that he was an Indian spy before being produced in court.

According to a press release by the Cyberabad Police, Prashant boarded a train to Bikaner and from there he went to the Indo-Pak border and jumped the fence there.

The release said he wanted to go to Pakistan for "personal reasons".

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