Dr Khalil Chishti has finally got freedom but after 20 years of his life had been wasted in an Indian jail. The President sent a special plane to bring him over and the Interior Minister was present on the airport to receive him. Dr Chishti deserved this reception, yet nothing is going to bring back his lost life except the memory of years spent in pain and longing. An octogenarian now, he would have died in those sordid jail cells serving his life sentence had not the President pleaded for his release during his recent visit to Ajmer. His face bears the scars of all that he had gone through in those 20 years but at the same time he had spirits left in him to express his joy at return to the motherland.
Dr Chishti’s life sentence was the cost he had to pay for his one visit to India to inquire after his ailing mother where a firing incident and a death of a relative gave the Indian authorities a pretext to frame him and throw him behind bars. Indian intelligence sleuths invariably view most visiting Pakistanis as spies or troublemakers sent on some covert mission. His story is a sad reflection on the way the Indians authorities treat Pakistani visitors.
Whether it is celebrities like Rahat Fateh Ali Khan or ordinary citizens, virtually everyone runs the risk of ending up in trouble. An affront to humanity such false cases make a travesty of all that New Delhi keeps boasting about its democracy and respect for people’s fundamental rights.