Jailed Indian man requests Pakistan court not to treat him as spy

Ansari sought remission in his sentence in the petition, filed with the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on his behalf by lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar, the Express Tribune reported. (Representational Image)

Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari, who is languishing in a jail in Peshawar, on Wednesday filed a petition in a high court, pleading that he should not be treated as a spy as he was not involved in “anti-state activities”. Ansari sought remission in his sentence in the petition, filed with the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on his behalf by lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar, the Express Tribune reported.

The petition said that although Ansari was not found involved in any anti-state activities in Pakistan but had entered the country without proper documents. Therefore, he has the right of remission in the sentence after spending a long time in jail.

A two-member bench of the PHC, comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ijaz Anwar Khan, directed the defence and interior ministries as well as the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government to submit their replies.

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Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was arrested in 2012 for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online. He suffered injuries after he was attacked by inmates in the Peshawar Central prison last year.

The Indian national was tried in a military court and was awarded three years’ vigorous imprisonment that started from December 15, 2015 and will end on December 14 next year.