Families of three Pakistani nationals imprisoned in India on Sunday said they were picked up and charged without evidence and asked the Pakistan government to raise the issue with the Indian authorities. They were addressing a press conference set up here by the Jama'at-ud-Da'wah.
According to the families the arrests were made between 1998 and 2001. Mohammad Irshad was arrested in connection with the Red Fort attack. Irshad's brother, Mohammad Khursheed, said his sibling had gone to Delhi for an IT conference, where he met and married a local. However, he did not get his visa renewed. He was picked up in the wake of the blast and sentenced to death. He is presently in Tihar Jail in Delhi.
Mohammad Zulfiqar and Shahnawaz were apparently visiting relatives in India when they were arrested. While Zulfiqar is in Tihar Jail, Shahnawaz is in a prison in Gujarat.
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The families expressed dismay over the fact that no Pakistani human rights organisation had raised the issue.
As to why they were raising the issue at this juncture, the families argued that the governments of both countries were now releasing prisoners and they wanted to bring the plight of their relatives languishing in Indian prisons into the public domain.