MUZAFFARABAD: A man whose nationality could not be ascertained by law-enforcement agencies in Azad Jammu and Kashmir for months has finally been declared to be a Vietnamese citizen.

Belonging to the Hmong ethnic minority of Vietnam, Vu Gia Po, who had earlier been wrongly referred to as Wu Ta Puma is desperately awaiting completion of procedural formalities for repatriation to his country.

The 37-year old was kept in a police station in Athmuqam, district headquarters of Neelum valley, about 74 kilometres northeast of here, in November last year and his hosts have since been finding it difficult to decide about their inadvertent guest.

“We feel relieved that his birthplace has been traced and hopefully he will soon be reunited with his family,” SHO Athmuqam Mohammad Yasin told Dawn on Wednesday.

Po was taken into custody by the Military Intelligence (MI) from Sharda, in the upper belt of the valley that straddles the Line of Control, assuming that he might have sneaked into AJK from the India-held side of the disputed region.

After investigating him for some time, the MI handed him over to the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) in Muzaffarabad in October last year. The CIA tried without success to ascertain his nationality with the help of some Chinese and Korean workers of construction companies working in Muzaffarabad and finally handed him over to Athmuqam police.

Po was never treated as an offender and he was free to move on the premises of the rundown station.

The Athmuqam police were able to guess that Po was from Vietnam because of the way he was excited when a local Red Crescent official showed him Vietnamese flag and currency notes on the Internet.

And his life took a turn for the better when Dawn published a report about him in December which drew the attention of the Vietnamese embassy in Islamabad.

Meanwhile, a Neelum valley-based civil society activist uploaded a two-minute video clip of him on the social media. But since Po belonged to an ethnic minority living in the rural Meo Vac district of Ha Giang province, many Southeast Asians, including even Vietnamese, were unable to recognise his dialect.

“I am Vu Gia Po from Khau Vai commune. I am a good person, not a thief. I followed Mr Vu and Mr Phinh and went to China to earn money. I have a wife and five children living in Khau Vai commune. Please help me to take me back to the border with Vietnam. I am not Chinese. I am Vietnamese,” he said in the video clip.

According to NaSon Nguyen, a Ho Chi Minh City-based freelance journalist, police in Hanoi sent Po’s picture which accompanied the Dawn story to various communes, but it took two months to reach his Khau Vai commune in Meo Vac district where people recognised him.

On the basis of the Dawn report, the deputy commissioner of Neelum submitted a report to the AJK home department on January 6, asking how he should deal with the case.

The home department forwarded the information to the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs which wrote to the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Interior “to take further action on this case, as per the Standard Operating Procedure,” according to Additional Secretary (home) Abdul Hameed Mughal.

Subsequently, two officials of the Vietnamese embassy visited the Athmuqam police station where they were told to fulfil some procedural formalities for taking Po along with them.

According to Nguyen, the freelance journalist, Po belonged to a poor family. He left home in April 2012 for neighbouring China along with two friends in search of work and his family lost track of him.

It was, however, surprising how he ended up in Kashmir.

Nguyen said Po’s wife had sent Vietnam Dong 17,000,000 (USD 850) to the Vietnamese embassy for air tickets.

On Wednesday when Po was showed the pictures of his wife and a daughter sent by Nguyen he could not help control his tears.

When Dawn contacted the embassy by email on Wednesday, Counsellor Phan Y Nhan said in a brief response that the Pakistani ministries of foreign affairs and interior had been informed about the matter and they were trying to facilitate his release.

“At the moment, I can only inform you that the case is positively progressing,” he added.