The Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr. T.C.A Raghavan, headed to Karachi on Tuesday to meet ‘Geeta’, the deaf-mute Indian girl stranded there for 15 years, would do well to also look into the case of Salman, an Indian boy left behind in Karachi in 1994 when he was two years old.
In a letter to Dr Raghavan dated Aug 3, 2015, journalist Jatin Desai, General Secretary of the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) has drawn the Indian High Commissioner’s attention to this case with the subject line: “Request for your help and support – A young boy, Salman has been stranded in Pakistan and wants to return to India”.
“As you must be aware, a young boy Salman, is stranded in Pakistan for more than two decades. In 1994, his mother Salma visited her parents in Karachi with her two children,” writes Desai.
“She decided to leave Salman behind with them as he had fallen seriously ill. Salma’s father passed away a while back and her mother is not keeping well. Due to these reasons, in 2012, she and her family members began efforts to get Salman back to India. They wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi in 2012 and to the High Commission of India, Islamabad, in 2013.”
Salman’s sister, Nida has traveled from India to Pakistan in order to pursue the matter, and is currently in Karachi.
“She has been trying her best to ensure his return back home but is in the need for help and support.
“This is a sad story of a divided family. There are number of cases like this in both Pakistan and India. Divided families also find it difficult to meet each other because of the strict visa regime.
“We are sure you and your colleagues would be working on the matter and would find a way to ensure that Salman returns to his home.”
As audiences on both sides of the border flock to cinema houses to see the Salman Khan blockbuster ‘Bajrangi Bhaijan’, it is time for real life to imitate reel life and repatriate real-life Munnis and Munnas, stranded across a hostile border. It is time for the hostilities to end and let a peaceful era dawn for the sake of the region’s people.
