NEW DELHI, June 9: They left the comfort of home in Pakistan in search of a celluloid dream in Bollywood but the script went terribly wrong, the dream eluded them and the only thing that persists is the daily nightmare of life in a New Delhi remand home.Driven by a desire to see Mumbai, two Pakistani children illegally crossed the porous border at Attari, Punjab, in 1996. They ended up in a New Delhi remand home instead, where they continue to languish. Now they only want to go home.The Pakistan High Commission in the Capital has chosen to ignore the plight of the two boys. Remand home authorities in Mumbai and a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in New Delhi have repeatedly written to the High Commission since August 1996, but the only response has been a deliberate silence.The fates of 13-year-old Mohammad Ashraf Abdul Hamid and 17-year-old Ashiq Ali are inextricably intertwined. They crossed the border separately at Attari sometime in 1996. Both wanted to make it to Mumbai. And now both are in aremand home in the Capital, with no immediate hope of returning home.Ashraf crossed the border in 1996, without any legal documents. He said that he got on to a Delhi-bound train, with Rs 400 in his pocket.The 13-year-old left for Mumbai the same day and said he initially worked as a domestic servant for a Goregaon resident before he was caught and packed off to the Umerkhadi Observation Home.Ashiq also crossed the border at Attari in 1996 and took a bus to Amritsar, from where he hopped on to a train to Delhi. He says that he was accompanied by a Mumbai resident, 30-year-old Hassan. He was carrying Rs 5,000 with him.He took a train to Mumbai and stayed at Hassan's sister's house for six months, while he worked in a fish market. Ashiq was apprehended by the Juvenile Aid Police Unit at Victoria Terminus and remanded to the Umerkhadi home.Both Ashraf and Ashiq were transferred to Delhi by the Mumbai Juvenile Welfare Board on June 11, 1997 "after exhausting their efforts to repatriate the childrento their home country". They were next sent to the Alipur Children's Home on June 26, 1997, where they remain. The probation officer (PO) of the Mumbai remand home wrote to the Pakistan High Commission on August 29, 1996 and December 17, 1996 but received no response.With nothing else to go on, the then OHB superintendent Nisha Aggarwal wrote to the Joint Director (Social Welfare) of the Delhi Government on June 19, 1997 for the repatriation of the boys. The observation home asked that the boys be transferred to the Alipur home. And nothing was done for them since.In a May 1998 order the Juvenile Welfare Board that reviewed the case, observed: "During intervals, it appears to us that no heed was paid to these unfortunate children and they are deprived of liberty."Faced with absolute indifference from the High Commission, representatives of SACCS have suggested that the photographs of the children be passed on to an NGO in Pakistan, so that these could be released in the print and electronic media.The JWB feels that this move would "pressure the Pakistan High Commission to wake up from its slumber and take home their juveniles and then only restoration/rehabilitation would be possible."While insisting that the children have no future in India, the JWB asked: "Where will they go after they cross the juvenile age ?"
