August 9, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 10, 1424

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NEW DELHI, Aug 8: An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said the government was planning to free a 13-year old Pakistani boy on Tuesday after he had strayed into Rajasthan from his village in Bahawlpur in June.

The Indian spokesman said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had directed that 13-year-old Pakistani boy, Munir who strayed across the border, be released from jail and sent back home.

“Efforts are on to have him sent back to Pakistan by Tuesday,” the spokesman said. Pakistani officials said they had yet to be allowed to meet the boy to give him consular help. An illiterate, Munir, who hails from Vatu in Bahawalpur in Pakistan, had strayed into Sri Ganganagar district in Rajasthan on June 26 and immediately jailed. His father Bilal Mohammad sells qulfi in Lahore.

“The decision has been taken as a very special case and in view of Prime Minister’s initiative to release Munir,” the spokesman said.

The boy’s plight came to light close on the heels of the deep impact left by two-year old Pakistani girl Noor Fatima who underwent a heart surgery in Bangalore.

“People-to-people contact is a very important part of the step-by-step process” initiated by Mr Vajpayee, the spokesman said. According to the Indian human rights group, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), the boy was actually sent to a regular jail for a month. Only on the intervention of the PUCL, Munir was shifted to a juvenile observation home.

Meanwhile Laloo Prasad Yadav secured his passport on Friday with the Supreme Court’s intervention to lead the delegation to Pakistan. “Many of my fellow Biharis are today citizens of Pakistan. I want to meet and greet them on behalf of their Indian brothers and sisters,” Mr Yadav said as he prepared to leave for Amritsar on Saturday morning. “The only way to be is to live as brothers which we are.”