Mumbai techie Hamid Nehal Ansari crossed the Attari-Wagah border into India on Tuesday and reunited with his family after spending six long years in a jail in Pakistan.
Ansari was arrested in 2012 and charged with espionage and forgery after he crossed to Pakistan to save a social media friend from forced marriage. According to the Indian Express, he was physically tortured by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and that his left eye was damaged. Ansari was left in solitary confinement initially after his arrest.
Ansari does not blame anybody for his ordeal because the fault was his own. "The mistake was mine. Though my motives were good, I took the wrong step and I have paid the price for it," he clarified.
Ansari has a piece of advice to those looking to fall in love. "Never fall in love on Facebook," he said, according to the Indian Express.
“The second lesson that I have learnt is never to hide anything from your parents and follow the legal route for anything."
“I don’t want to talk about what happened in Pakistan right now. But I am happy for all the support I got,” he added. “I want to look at the future. I have to find a job and after that I also have to find a woman to get married.”
Talking about what prompted him to cross the border in an attempt to rescue the girl he befriended on social media, Ansari said: “She asked for help and I started hunting for a visa. There were people from Pakistan who posed as friends and said they would help. I thought from the heart and not from brain. They asked me to come through Afghanistan. They kept fake IDs and documents in my pocket."
He said there were policemen waiting for him before he reached the girl’s house.
“The moment I got arrested I thought I was doomed. That moment I thought I was never going to go home but then as time went by I started getting hope that I would go home,” he said “The first three years I spent underground alone, sometimes they would give me food, and sometimes they wouldn’t. I had this motivation that I have to go back home and serve my parents. I have given them a huge pain and this will be my repentance. This is the least I can do,” he said in an interview, reported news agency PTI.
Moglai Bap and Mo Chara of Kneecap perform at Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 28, 2025. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
Police may probe anti-Israel comments at Glastonbury
BRITISH police said they were considering whether to launch an investigation after performers at Glastonbury Festival made anti-Israel comments during their shows.
"We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon," Avon and Somerset Police, in western England, said on X late on Saturday (28).
Irish hip-hop group Kneecap and punk duo Bob Vylan made anti-Israeli chants in separate shows on the West Holts stage on Saturday. One of the members of Bob Vylan chanted "Death, death, to the IDF" in a reference to the Israel Defense Forces.
"Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation," the police statement said.
The Israeli Embassy in Britain said it was "deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival".
Prime minister Keir Starmer said earlier this month it was "not appropriate" for Kneecap to appear at Glastonbury.
The band's frontman Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November. He has denied the charge.
A British government minister said it was appalling that the anti-Israel chants had been made at Glastonbury, and that the festival's organisers and the BBC broadcaster - which is showing the event - had questions to answer.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said he was also appalled by violence committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
"I'd also say to the Israeli Embassy, get your own house in order in terms of the conduct of your own citizens and the settlers in the West Bank," Streeting told Sky News.
"I wish they'd take the violence of their own citizens towards Palestinians more seriously," he said.
(Reuters)