M A I N   N E W S

Pak boy returns home
Praises Indian hospitality
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

Kartarpur, August 12
The Delhi-Lahore bus had a special passenger today. Teenager Munir was on board, returning home to Pakistan after a stay of one month and 20 days in India.

He was given VIP treatment by the management of the Magnolia Tourist Complex, run by the Punjab Tourism Department. His favourite ‘rajmah and chawal’ were served for lunch while the manager repeatedly asked him if he wanted anything else.

On occasion of Raksha Bandhan, a Jaipur-based girl, who was travelling on the same bus, tied a ‘Rakhi’ around his wrist.

Looking confused, he relished his favourite food. After finishing lunch, he gazed around to locate the security personnel who were accompanying him. Then, very slowly said, “It is good. Very good. People are nice. I am taking lot of love with me and some gifts.” When asked whether he enjoyed the food, the Pakistani boy, who had mistakenly strayed into Rajasthan on June 26 and was caught by the security forces answered in Jhangi dialect, “Yes, I enjoyed it. My mother Haleema used to cook rajmah and chawal for me. I miss her and my three brothers a lot. Now I am going to meet them after one month and 20 days. I spent a lot of time here.”

Munir, whose release was ordered by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Friday, was initially shy of people and kept frowning whenever someone tried to come near him. Slowly he opened up and said he was taking mangoes, clothes and a Rs 10 note, which was gifted to him by the in charge of the Bikaner juvenile home during his detention there. “My parents and brothers will come to Lahore to take me home. They will like these things. I have not been able to talk to them, even on phone.”

Munir, who belongs to Batu village in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur district, had strayed into India as he lost his way while going to his mother’s brother’s place. “I don’t know how it happened. I realised it that I was in India only after the police arrested me. I was not mistreated at any stage. Even in jail they treated me like their own kid,” said Munir, who was visibly elated, to be home with his parents by the evening. ‘kurta and pyjamas’ said the clothes and the ‘chappals’ had been gifted to him by officials. “They had kept my chappals at Bikaner,”he said.

His co-passengers, members of a Mumbai-based peace mission expressed their inability to interact as they were ‘prohibited’ by the government from doing so, were visibly happy to be in company of a little VIP guest.

WAGAH: The bus carrying Munir crossed over into Pakistan at 4.30 pm. The media was eagerly waiting for Munir since morning. He alighted from bus looking a little tense and tired with long journey from New Delhi to Amritsar.

PHILLAUR: The security forces were alerted, when a tyre of the New Delhi-bound Pakistani bus was punctured in Goraya at 1.45 pm today.

Though security forces were escorting the bus still additional force was summoned from the Goraya police station. A police party headed by the Goraya SHO, Mr Pritam Singh, rushed to the spot. The bus resumed the journey at 2.25 p.m.