Karale released by Pakistan KARACHI: Pakistan released five Indians including Bhanudas Karale of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, today. They are in Amritsar and waiting for their relatives to come and pick them up.

It has been a long journey for Karale, said peace activist Jatin Desai from India. "I spoke to him little while ago and he is fine". Thanks to everyone who made this possible, he concluded.

According to Desai, India took around 10 months to verify his nationality. It has been a major issue and we must see that nationality should be verified in a definite timeframe. In the age of IT it can be done in a few days. His wife, son and nephew have left for Amritsar to pick him up.

Bhanudas (58), was arrested on August 28, 2010, for illegally entering Pakistan. He was granted bail on September 21 that year. Since then, he has been waiting to get out of the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

On November 2, 2011, the Lahore High Court ordered the immediate release of Bhanudas and 74 other foreign prisoners, including 32 Indians, who had finished their sentence. Since then, 10 prisoners have been released, human rights activists say.

Bhanudas lost his mental balance after Garware Nylons Ltd., where he worked, shut down in 1996. In fact, it was after a visit to a psychiatrist that he disappeared, on January 3, 2010. The couple have two sons: Vijay, who is in the Army, and Rohidas, who is in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). "Even before he lost his job, we had taken him to...a psychiatrist, in 1993. He would shout unnecessarily and lose his temper. He would hit me, and everyone in the house. Then in 2006, we took him to another doctor. But even after that, he was quite unstable and unpredictable," she said. "However troublesome he was, I can never wish that any harm is caused to him. He was a little mad, but not a bad person."

It has been a long journey for the family since he went missing. "We searched for him everywhere. We lodged a complaint with the Wanowrie police station in Pune. We made a list of all villages named Wadgaon in Maharashtra and went there looking for him, in case he had gone there by mistake," said Bhanudas' nephew Nitin Karale. "We were scared to reveal that his son, Vijay, is in the Army, fearing that getting him back would be more difficult if we say that."

Finally, help came through another prisoner. Unable to contact his family for more than a year, Bhanudas sent his first letter with Gulab Singh, who was released last year, having been imprisoned in Lahore. An Amritsar-based journalist, Neeraj Sharma, interviewed Gulab Singh and then informed the Karale family of the whereabouts of Bhanudas. He then helped them to get in touch with Jas Uppal, a United Kingdom-based human rights lawyer and activist, and Awais Sheikh, an advocate in Lahore. Nitin sent them the missing person's complaint and Bhanudas' voter identity card, documents to help the Indian High Commission verify his identity.

Friday, June 15, 2012

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Potato, potahto Vasandhura Chauhan

You say eether and I say eyether,
You say neether and I say nyther;
Eether, eyether, neether, nyther,
Let's call the whole thing off!more