Good news came early to a Pakistani prisoner in India after he heard that he will be released next week to get back home in time for Eid.
Mohammed Waqas has been in India for 10 years in Bithoor police station in Kanpur after he went missing in 2005 when he visited the country reportedly for a cricket match.
"We received a phone call from the Indian Embassy on Friday evening and now arrangements are in place to send Waqas back to Pakistan via Wagah on Tuesday," Vinod Kumar Singh, the SHO of the Bithoor police station was quoted as saying by Times of India.
He added that Waqas was very excited when he was told of the news of his "gharwapsi" and is eager to spend the holy day of Eid with his family and loved ones.
How and why was Waqas arrested?
Waqas had come to India in 2005 for a cricket match on a three-day visa. However, when his passport was allegedly stolen from his hotel room, he ran away and was found four years later in the Bithoor area and was arrested. TOI reports that he was charged with providing information from India to Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence.
While searching him at the time of his arrested, the police discovered that during Waqas' time in India, he had taken up residence under a fake name in the house of one an old lady who daughter Waqas had married and later divorced.
The police found a voter's ID on him with a fake name. He was going by the name Ibrahim Khan. The investigators recovered maps of military bases, a fake driving license, from him.
