Young Jitendra Arjunwar is cooling his heels in the youthful offenders section in the Hyderabad central jail after he crossed into Pakistan on August 12 and was picked up by the Pakistan Rangers.
A senior police official from Umarkot district in Sindh province told The Hindu over phone on Thursday that Arjunwar, 15 or 16 years old, was from Bargad in Madhya Pradesh’s Seoni district. His father’s name is Asurya Prasad Ghadiwal. The Rangers caught him at the Cheetah check post, which is 30km inside Pakistan, on August 12 and handed him over to the Khokrapar police station the next day.
Charged under the Foreigners Act, Arjunwar was remanded to judicial custody on August 15 and is facing trial for trespassing into Pakistan. He would remain in jail till he is chargesheeted and trial begins, the police said. They do not know why the boy crossed the border.
At Khokhrapar police station, a policeman said the boy spoke Hindi and was not much educated. He also didn’t know he had crossed the border, which is fenced with barbed wire. The police official did not confirm the news reports that said he dug his way under the fence and entered Pakistan. According to one account the boy had a fight at home and ran away. The police are puzzled that he ran away so far from his home and managed to get through such a difficult fence.
Meanwhile, Pakistan will release 337 fishermen and 25 crew members of two vessels — MSV AL-Buran and MSV AL-Faruqi — this week. Thecrew members were arrested in April 2013 from Chur Bandar. They pleaded guilty of entering Pakistani waters and were sentenced to 10 days rigorous imprisonment and fined Pakistani Rs. 1000. They have completed their sentence, official sources said. The ships transport sheep and goats from Gujarat to Dubai and other countries. The nationality of one of the fishermen, however, is not confirmed and so he will not be released, it is learnt.
