Pakistan on Monday released 30 Indian prisoners, including 27 fishermen, in a goodwill gesture ahead of the country’s Independence Day. Among the 30 prisoners was 76-year-old Gajanand Sharma who was released on Monday after spending 36 years in prison.
Gajanand disappeared in 1982 from Jaipur and his family was clueless about his whereabouts. His family which had given up after years of search finally got the good news in April this year when Pakistan dispatched some documents to verify Gajanand’s information and details.
Sharma was imprisoned at Central Jail Lahore. Sehdev Sharma, a Punjab based activist, who came to receive Gajanand at Attari-Wagah border said; “This is a gift for our entire nation from the central govt on Independence Day”. According to a report by news agency PTI, Gajanand was sentenced to two months.
In Gajanand’s absence, his wife faced lots of hardships and had to work in a private hospital to bring up their two sons who were in school when her husband went missing. There is no information on how Gajanand ended up in Pakistan given the fact that his village in Jaipur, Fatehram Ka Tibba, is around 800 kilometres away from the international border. He was booked under Foreigners’ Act.
“This is a humanitarian gesture to mark the country’s Independence Day on August 14. It is also in line with Pakistan’s consistent policy of not politicising humanitarian issues. It is our hope that the Indian side will also reciprocate in a similar manner,” the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
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