A Chinese soldier who has been living in India since 1963 will finally return home to Beijing on Saturday morning, official sources at the Ministry of External Affairs said.
As a special gesture of India-China harmony, Rajya Sabha member and head of the Parliamentarians Group on India-China Friendship Tarun Vijay will see him off at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
“I will see off Wang Qi who will be united with his family in China after half a century,” said Mr. Vijay, who will be accompanied by the Chinese ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui.
Mr Vijay said that the time of Mr Wang’s return was carefully chosen as this is the season of spring festivities in China. Over the last few days, Mr. Wang and his family members were given official papers to enable them to travel. The Ministry of External Affairs had said on Thursday that his visit was ‘imminent’.
The MEA had informed on Thursday that the Indian embassy in Beijing and the Chinese embassy in Delhi were working to help Mr. Wang visit China.
Wang Qi was arrested in 1963, a year after he strayed into India during the India-China war.
He was imprisoned in 1969 and was shifted to Tirodi village in Madhya Pradesh where he married a local woman and settled there ever since.
Mr. Wang’s is the only recent case wherein a soldier of the 1962 war is returning home after a half-century gap. Mr Vijay said that the soldier will return soon after meeting his Chinese family members. “He has Indian family now and we hope his visit will help in promoting mutual understanding,” Mr Vijay said.
