Man missing from Pak is in Ferozepur jail: Mann after his family’s appeal

Days after a family from Pakistan’s Punjab approached Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann via WhatsApp to trace their “mentally challenged son” who had reportedly crossed the border on May 28, he claimed to have traced the man to a jail in Ferozepur on Tuesday.

Mann said he has found a man who was arrested from the India-Pakistan border “roaming” around Tahli Wala village near Jalalabad, identified as “Naaich, 24, son of Arsh Mohammed”, according to the FIR. “I enquired from Border Security Force (BSF) and Punjab Police, who also found a 10-rupee Pakistani currency note from his pocket but nothing objectionable. He was booked at the Ghubaya police post, and is currently in judicial custody at the Ferozepur jail,” he said.

In the video received over WhatsApp by Mann and shared on his Facebook page on June 15, a Pakistani man is seen pleading with Mann that their “mentally challenged son” is missing since May 28 and they are “sure that he has been arrested by BSF”.

The man, who identifies as a relative of the missing man, emphasises that “we belong to Punjab and have the same mother tongue”, so he expects that Mann will help them as they “haven’t received any help from the Pakistani authorities”. The relative also says that since Mann has earlier helped in rescuing people from Saudi Arabia, they expect him to pursue their case in India.

Mann said the man held in Jalalabad has to be the same man who went missing from the Pakistan village because the date of his going missing and that of his detention by the BSF is the same, May 28. Assistant sub-inspector Balkar Singh of Ghubaya police post told HT over phone that BSF officials handed them over the man who was booked on June 6 for crossing the border.

However, Mann added that though the information will give relief to the family, the Pakistani man “will have to face the law of the land”.