NAROWAL, Sept 6: The release of a poor farm worker languishing in an Indian jail for the last five years could not become possible because of the callous attitude of the Pakistan High Commission.

Reports said Abdul Hameed alias Bagga, a resident of Ransinwal village near Narowal, was grazing buffalos near the border belt when some of his animals strayed into the Indian territory on Aug 8, 2003. As he crossed the border to bring his animals back, the Indian border security forces caught him.

Although the security personnel pushed his animals towards the Pakistani territory, they sent Hameed to Gurdaspur jail for illegally crossing the border.

Ishrat Hina, wife of Hameed, said an extensive search was made for him, but it was only after 15 days that an anonymous caller informed that his husband was in Gurdaspur jail in India.

“We did not believe in the caller’s information and continued our search in Pakistan until we received a letter of Hameed from the Gurdaspur jail about his detention after about two months,” she said.

Since then, she said, every effort had been made to get her husband released, but to no avail.

Hina said five fabricated cases were registered against her husband by the Indian security forces to keep him in long detention.

She said the Indian courts had acquitted her husband in four cases, but she apprehended that more cases would be instituted against her husband if the Pakistan government did not intervene in the matter.

She said the jail staff in India tortured her husband and did not provide adequate food to him besides keeping him in inhuman and miserable conditions.

Hina said she had spent every penny for getting her husband released and she was now finding it extremely hard to rear her two sons and three daughters because she had no source of income

She appealed to the Pakistan government and the human rights organizations to make efforts for the early release of her husband.