The 20 years I spent in Indian prison was the worst phase of my life. I wasted some of my most precious years languishing in the back of beyond for doing nothing. For the first time, I felt that I was discriminated against for being a Pakistani.
In the past, I had heard of Pakistanis being trapped in false cases in India. Mine was one such example. I had gone to India to see my ailing mother, but within days, I was arrested in a murder case. I did not even know which murder the authorities were talking about.
They claimed that I had murdered my cousin, but I knew that they were falsely implicating me. I never killed anybody. I can’t hit anybody, let alone kill someone. A conspiracy was deliberately hatched to get me into trouble.
The truth is that some miscreants attacked my maternal uncle’s home and attacked my cousin with a dagger and injured him badly. Thereafter, the Indian police put the entire blame on me. I personally feel that it had a lot to do with me being a Pakistani, and this hurt me a lot.
The hatred was so evident that even in court and police files, I was identified as Khalil Pakistani, instead of scientist Dr Mohammed Khalil Chishti. It was just ridiculous, and really hard to believe. After my experience, I only want to tell my Pakistani brethren visiting India to be wary of the discriminatory and biased attitude of a few Indians.
I don’t want to speak much about the Indian jails. Jails everywhere are a living hell, and those in India are no different. They are similar to Pakistan, perhaps worse.
The governments of both Pakistan and India need to make jails reform centres rather than cages where people become hardened criminals. The conditions inside are really deplorable. They are not a good place to live in and I won’t like any Pakistani to taste what I have tasted.
When in jail, I would only pray to God every day, hoping for my release. That’s what I did all those years.
I had almost lost hope, but by the grace of Almighty Allah, my prayers were finally answered, when at the age of 82, I was finally allowed to visit Pakistan and meet my wife, children and relatives again this year.
I was overwhelmed when I set foot on my home soil. It was a dream come true and I am really thankful to the Pakistan and Indian governments for giving me this new lease of life. I salute Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his kind-heartedness and Pakistani leaders for their efforts to secure my release.
I am supportive of the peace moves by both the countries and hope this can give a sense of security to the Pakistani and Indian visitors, who travel on either side.
Criminals should be punished, but nobody should be punished because he/she is an Indian or a Pakistani. There are good people in India too. So many of them have worked for my release. During those years behind bars, Justice Markhandi of the Supreme Court of India was constantly in touch with me.
The Indian Civil Society and NGOs were also concerned about me. For this, I am really grateful to them.
Today, I am extremely happy to be back home, but I only pray that whatever happened to me, does not happen to anyone.
Those who implicated me in the false case cannot return those 20 years of my life that I lost. I can’t even describe how much I missed my family, my children, grandchildren and friends. My family also went through a lot of pain. It was the most traumatic and distressing phase for them too. They will never forget these years and will always curse our (Pakistan-India) hostility for this.
I wish Indians know that all Pakistanis are not criminals, we should be treated with respect. Now, I only pray that I am released permanently.
When I go back to India (by November 1, 2012), I am hoping to get a favourable decision by the Supreme Court. I want to spend the few remaining years of my life with my family in peace.