Jadhav shadow on repatriation of 2 kids

BABAR ALI, 16, AND A

BOY WHO IS SPEECH

AND HEARING IMPAIRED HAVE BEEN WAITING

FOR THEIR REPATRIATION IN HOSHIARPUR

The chill in IndiaPakistan relations following death sentence to former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistan military court recently may delay the repatriation of two Pakistani children lodged in an observation home meant for undertrial adolescent offenders here.

Babar Ali, 16, and a speechand-hearing-impaired boy have been waiting for their repatriation from a long time. Babar Ali and his younger sibling Ali Raza, 14, had inadvertently strayed into Indian territory in Amritsar in July last year.

The latter is confined to Faridkot juvenile home that houses offenders aged 5 to 15.

Babar has served his sentence of 45 days as awarded by the juvenile justice board, Amritsar, on August 31, 2016, under the Indian Passport Act, but he continues to languish there. His parents are worried that Jadhav’s issue may jeopardise the repatriation.

“When the boy talked to his parents over phone, the latter expressed apprehension that soured diplomatic ties between the two countries might come in between, but that is not the case. Legal matters in such cases often get stretched,” said observation home superintendent Naresh Kumar.

“The Juvenile Justice Act mandates settlement of every juvenile offence case within six months, but it does not always happen,” he said.

He said the matter was with the Indian embassy in Pakistan and it was for the Amritsar police to pursue the matter. Senior superintendent of police, Amritsar rural, J Elanchezhian, said they were doing the needful.

The deaf and mute Pakistan national, who had crossed over from the Dera Baba Nanak sector in Gurdaspur in 2014, would also be completing three years — the maximum confinement for a juvenile delinquent — in November, but the authorities have not been able to identify his antecedents yet.