Life
Born in Amritsar Jail, Pak Girl Set to Return After 10 Years
Living with her mother who was serving term, Pakistani girl is in Class VII close to Central Jail
11-year old Hena was born in Amritsar Central Jail in 2006 to Pakistani national Fatima Bibi, who was arrested on May 8, 2006, along with Hena’s aunt Mumtaj for possession of drugs. Fatima and Mumtaj’s sentence is nearing an end and Heena is now set to return to her country after Pakistani authorities cleared her citizenship status on August 21. The Indian government issued a no-objection certificate and cleared files related to their release.
On August 21, Pakistan’s high Commission counsellor Fauzia Manzoor visited Fatima Bibi and Mumtaj along with their lawyer— Navjot Kaur Chabba, who is also a woman’s rights activist. Chabba fought their legal battle for free. Fauzia Manzoor’s visit is part of routine procedure before release of prisoners of this nature.
“The court had relaxed Hena out of the case but as she was born in Amritsar there was a technical hitch over her citizenship. Fatima, too, was reluctant to send her back alone. On August 21, the Pakistani counsellor officially endorsed Hena’s nationality and furnished requisite documentation,” The Tribune quoted Chabba as saying.
Born in an Indian Jail
On May 8, 2006, Fatima Bibi and Mumtaz, from Gujranwala and Sikandarabad in Pakistan, were arrested from Samjhauta Express on charges of drug trafficking. They had claimed they were coming to visit their maternal uncles in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar and that the 400 gram smack found belonged to the passenger sitting next to them. A court subsequently convicted and sentenced them to 10 years in jail. At the time of her arrest, Fatima was pregnant and she eventually gave birth to Hena. Hena has been with her mother for all these years in jail.
According to New Indian Express report, a local court had offered to make arrangements for sending the girl to Pakistan after her birth. However, Fatima was firm in her decision to keep Hena with her and not send her back to Pakistan alone. Hena goes to a government senior secondary school near central jail and is now a student of seventh standard.
“Pakistan will give new passports to Fatima Bibi and Mumtaj. In Hena’s case, they will provide a passport to her to enter Pakistan for the first time,” Chabba said.
Serving the Extra Term
Batala-based NGO Sarbat Da Bhala had gathered and paid an amount of about Rs 2 lakh as fine for the duo– this year, to start the procedure of their release. The trio would have been facing two more extra years of imprisonment in case they failed to pay the court fine. Officially their sentence had finished in November 2016 but due to non-payment of fine, they had been serving the extra term.
The no-objection certificate from the Punjab government is now awaited to ensure their release from the jail. According to The Hindustan Times report, Manzoor gave ₹2,000 to each Pak prisoner in the jail as Eidi (Eid gift) and urged the state home department to issue NOC at the earliest. The central jail has 53 Pakistani prisoners, including Fatima and Mumtaz.
