Geeta's return brings hope for Pak boy stuck in India

Bhopal, Nov 2: Government has set the ball rolling for repatriating a 15-year-old Pakistani boy, stuck here for more than two years in a story resembling that of Geeta, the deaf-mute girl who returned home from the neighbouring country last week after over a decade-long separation from her family.

"Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Director Sugandh Rajaram contacted me over phone two days ago and asked about Mohammad Ramzan, who hails from Karachi and had got separated from his mother some five years ago. "

He (Rajaram) asked me to send a petition to facilitate the return of Ramzan," Archana Sahay, who is taking care of the Pakistani boy since October 2013, said today. She is running an NGO 'Aarambh' in whose shelter home.

Umeed, Ramzan is staying. "I have come to know that Rajaram will take up the issue with his Pakistan counterpart shortly to facilitate Ramzan's return," she said. "A fortnight ago, I contacted (MEA) with the help of their website but it turned down my plea.But now with Geeta's return, they seem to have become active on Ramzan's issue," she added. [After Geeta's return, India's Salman Ahmed stranded in Pakistan, hopes to come back]

"Ramzan's ordeal started when his father Mohammad Kazol divorced his mother Begum Razia in 2009. Kazol along with his son and daughter Zora started living separately.

Razia twice or thrice contacted Kazol to get back her children.

"A deal was struck between Kazol and Razia under which she got Zora," said Hamza Basit, a local, who had come to the rescue of the runaway lad after learning about his ordeal from a newspaper report last month.He said Ramzan had told him that he along with his father had moved to Bangladesh in 2009 or 2010."Kazol remarried a woman in Bangladesh to compound problems for Ramzan, Basit said. His step mother started ill- treating Ramzan.

His father too did him no good. Asked about the boy, the MEA Spokesperson had on Friday said in New Delhi that there were some issues with the nationality of the boy.

Once Pakistan verifies his nationality, the decks would be cleared for his return to that country, he had added.

PTI