 Early Times Report
Jammu, July 23: The Pakistani teenager was arrested last year when he accidently crossed over the Line of Control (Loc) in Jammu and Kashmir. A year on, he refuses to go back home, though he has been released by Indian authorities. His reason for this is disarmingly simple and touching: "India is good," 16-year-old Ashfaq Ali says, adding that he can get a job in this country. "I crossed the border by mistake when I was caught. I was here for 14 months. I don't want to go back," Ali told news agency at the Attari-Wagah border after his release. "India is good. I can get a job. I wish the Indian government would let me stay."
The boy's family is reportedly based at Doonga Pehli in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir's Bhimber tehsil, according to an earlier .
He was caught by Indian security personnel in Nowshera in May 2017 when he crossed over the LoC. Since nothing incriminating was obtained from him, he was shifted to a juvenile home in Ranbir Singh Pora district of Jammu and Kashmir.
In January this year, he managed to escape from the juvenile home "after bending the iron grills of a window on the rear wall of the home", the police had then said, . A fortnight later, he was arrested in Punjab's Bhatinda, where he reached here after getting on to a goods train.
Ironically, after all that running away, when the time has come for Ali to finally return home, he now says he would rather stay back in India. |
