![bangladeshi man returns home after 23 years bangladeshi man returns home after 23 years](https://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/415982-prisonjailarrest-1343831484.jpg)
Moslemuddin Sarkar, who had been missing since 1989, returned home on Tuesday with help from the International Committee of the Red Cross after spending 15 years in Pakistani jails.
Hundreds of well-wishers turned out in Bishnurampur village in northern Mymensingh district to catch a glimpse of him and congratulate the tearful and jubilant family.
Sarkar told AFP by telephone he had entered India without valid documents in 1989 without informing his family. He was then caught as he tried to cross into Pakistan in 1997 where he was jailed for trying to enter the country illegally.
"I went to Pakistan believing that I would get a better job there. But they caught me at the border. I was beaten and tortured in prison," he explained in a mixture of Urdu and Bengali.
"I wrote dozens of letters to my village address, but did not have any clue that they were never posted. At one stage I lost all hope of returning home," he said, adding that he was "delighted" to see his mother still alive.
The Red Cross became involved and facilitated Sarkar's return after his family received a tip-off that he was locked up in Pakistan and turned to the organisation for help, according to spokesperson Onchita Shadman, who described him as "frail and overwhelmed".
Julhas Uddin, Sarkar's younger brother, said most of the family had feared the worst.
"We searched for him for years and finally gave up hope believing he might have drowned in the sea. But our mother always believed that her son would return home one day," he told AFP.
"My mother passed out as he hugged her after returning. It was a heartbreaking scene. He could not control his tears for hours," he said.
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Once we were brothers.
Well at last he is with his loved one, thanks God some one address the problem of the poors. the lesson is that out of desperation poor people do take risk on their life. Our governaments must provide job opportunity to the people.
Here is a man who was made to rot in jail and tortured for 23 years just for entering the country illegally and we have the gall to complain about Afia Siddiqi, who was convicted in court for terrorism.
@Amir B: he entered the country illegally. he broke the law.
He must have felt like 1971 all over again.
@Amir B ... Please avoid to put Islam and Muslim thing every where and stop being ashamed of your self. God knows well and had brought you up in the right place either in muslim house or christian house ... Just pass critics as being a human being without segment your self and talk sensibly on topic as the rest of the people are doing so.
What a shame!!! and then we call ourselves muslims. How much effort does it take to verify if some one is indeed not a spy but a poor labour?