Held for peddling in 2006, Pak woman repatriated

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 19

Seven months after two Pakistan sisters were released, the plea of their accomplice in a drugs case Nasreen Akhtar (65) has been heard. She was freed from Amritsar Central Jail on Tuesday.

Nasreen and another Pakistani prisoner Aftab, who was arrested under the Passport Act, were repatriated. Both were handed over to Pakistani authorities by the BSF at Attari-Wagah joint check post on Monday.

Nasreen was arrested along with Fatima and Mumtaz and their mother Rashida Bibi at Attari railway station in May 2006, for carrying drugs. They were sentenced to 10-year imprisonment with a fine of Rs 4 lakh each. Fatima, who was pregnant then, gave birth to Heena while in jail the same year. Rashida Bibi died in 2008.

On November 1 last year, two sisters Fatima and Mumtaz and Fatima’s daughter were repatriated.

On her release, Nasreen said: “I am happy to return as my 90-year old ailing mother is waiting eagerly for me.” Nasreen was paid around Rs 50,000 as remuneration for the works she did during her jail term.