Indian arrested in Pakistan without valid travel documents

Pakistani law enforcement agencies on Wednesday said they had arrested an Indian national named Ram Bahar who was in the Kurram tribal district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province without valid travel documents.

Local media reported that Ram Bahar had entered Pakistan from Afghanistan and was apprehended at Parachinar airport.

He reportedly hails from Gujarat state and speaks only Gujarati, officials said. They said the Indian man did not possess any identity documents at the time of his arrest and that he was aged 35 to 36 years.

No further details about Ram Bahar were made available.

An official of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa home department said the man was in the custody of an intelligence agency.

It is expected he will be presented before a magistrate in a day or so.

Kurram district was earlier part of Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

It is a Shia-majority region that witnessed internecine sectarian clashes that claimed scores of lives in recent years.

Earlier this week, Pakistan released 30 Indian prisoners, including 27 fishermen, from jail as a goodwill gesture ahead of the country’s Independence Day.

More than 470 Indians, including 418 fishermen, are detained in Pakistani jails, according to a government report submitted to the Supreme Court in July.

Most of the fishermen were arrested by maritime authorities for allegedly trespassing into Pakistan’s territorial waters.

The fishermen released this week were shifted to the Cantonment railway station from Karachi’s Malir Jail and sent to Lahore, from where they crossed the land border to India.

First Published: Aug 15, 2018 23:11 IST