India to send Pakistani boy Ramzan home

India has decided to send Karachi’s ‘runaway boy’ Mohammad Ramzan, as a ‘return gift’ back to Pakistan for returning Geeta nearly 15 years after she accidentally crossed over to their territory.

Ramzan, a 15-year-old boy, was separated from his mother at age of 10 when his father Mohammad took him to Bangladesh and remarried. After being tortured by his stepmother, the boy crossed the border alone in 2011 with the hope of returning to his mother in Pakistan.



Ramzan had travelled to many states before landing in Bhopal where he was spotted at the railway station by the government railway police (GRP) on September 22, 2013, and shifted to a shelter home run by Childline. Ramzan has remained there since.

In September this year, a CA student from Bhopal traced the boy’s family in Karachi by sharing pictures via social media.



Ramzan’s mother, Razia Begum, after learning that her son is in India, contacted Pakistan human rights activist Ansar Burney with a request for his release and return. She also uploaded a video appealing to the Indian government to send her son home. Burney had mailed a copy of the passports of Ramzan’s grandparents to the Indian embassy and Childline for help to no avail until Geeta’s safely returned back to India on Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2015.