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Munir to be sent back to Pakistan
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 8
The 13-year-old illiterate Pakistani boy who strayed across the border into Rajasthan in June and has been in jail since then would be sent back to Pakistan by the Rakshabandhan.

The decision has been taken as a special gesture of the Government of India at the initiative of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs announced today. He said “people-to-people contact was a very important part of the step-by-step process” initiated by the Prime Minister.

Munir, son of a kulfi-seller of Lahore, hails from Vatu in Bahawalpur in Pakistan. He had strayed into Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan on June 26.

Munir lost his way from Vatu to Mochipur village to borrow Rs 500 from his uncle as directed by his mother.

Munir will come to Delhi where the Pakistan High Commission will be given consular access.

After Pakistani child Noor, who returned to Pakistan following a successful heart surgery, stole Indian hearts, the Prime Minister had announced New Delhi’s offer of medical treatment at government cost to 20 Pakistani children.