LAHORE, May 10: They are on home soil, still some distance away from home. Two Pakistani men are waiting to be reunited with their families many days after they were released and sent back by the Indian authorities.

Abdul Razaak of Khanpur near Rahim Yar Khan and Haji Muhammad of Mithi district in Sindh were among the six Pakistanis the Indian authorities handed over to the Pakistan Rangers at Wagah on May 4. While the other four in the group have since proceeded to their homes, Razzak and Haji Muhammad await their turn at an Edhi centre in Gulberg.

Staff at the centre say a man identifying himself as Haji Muhmmad’s uncle contacted them by telephone a couple of days ago but the call is yet to be followed up by a visit by any of his relatives. Razzak on the other hand is said to be mentally disturbed and the Edhi Foundation is not prepared to allow him to leave on his own. It has contacted its centre in Rahim Yar Khan to help locate Razzak’s family.

Both men are in their 20s and illiterate, which hinders their journey back home. The facts about their stay in India are clouded by their inability or reluctance to name places they were imprisoned in and their refusal to discuss their experience in detail.

They had crossed over into India separately and by mistake around two years ago and were arrested there. It is unclear whether the authorities in India tried to send a word about them to their families. Even if they did, the task of locating their homes and relatives in Pakistan would be that much more difficult for Indians.

“I wrote many letters to my family from the Indian prison but received no response from them,” Razzak says who is not sure whether these letters were ever delivered.

Visibly ill, he says he has his home not far from the Indian border. One evening two years ago when he was returning from work in the fields, he crossed over into India by mistake. “I was arrested and subjected to torture for several days as the authorities interrogated me, searching me for some vital information that I didn’t have. Eventually they sent me to jail where I was kept for more than 17 months.”

Haji Muhammad is a little more generous with details as he tells a similar story. He says he strayed into Indian territory while looking for work along the border close to his village. “It happened because I had a severe headache that day,” he tells Dawn. The Indian authorities took him for a spy and subjected him to torture, he says. “After 17 days of detention they got me admitted to a mental hospital. I underwent treatment for 11 months and was discharged after being declared fit. Then a court sentenced me to six months’ imprisonment for illegal border crossing. On May 1, they told me that I will be set free the next day.”

“The news excited me a lot and that night I couldn’t sleep for long,” says Haji who is desperate to be reunited with his loved ones - mother, three sisters and two brothers. He says his younger brother goes to a primary school in Mithi.

Haji says to be away from his family for some 19 months was an extremely painful experience but he is more concerned about the agony his family must have gone through in the period since he went missing. “A relative missing is more torturous than a relative dead,” he says.