Bringing down borders: Theatre reunites 13-year-old with family
Kashif Ali mistakenly crossed into India in 2011; Ajoka performance there helps trace family.
LAHORE:
Art transcends boundaries. In the case of a 13-year-old Pakistani boy, though, it helped bring them down.
A performance of Ajoka Theatre’s famous play Bullah helped reunite Kashif Ali, a boy who had mistakenly crossed the border into India in October 2011, with his parents. Ali had crossed the border near Kasur, was arrested by Indian authorities and sent to a shelter, Child Observation Home, in Faridkot.
Indian authorities tried to trace his family in Pakistan through the Pakistan High Commission, but received no response.
Family reunion
Help arrived in the most unusual way. On September 21, Ajoka performed at a local fair in Faridkot, organised annually to commemorate Baba Farid, where a local sessions judge Archana Puri met Madeeha Gauhar, creative director of Ajoka.
“She told me that she was talking to me not as a judge, or an Indian, but as a mother. She narrated the story of a Pakistani boy whose family could not be traced. She asked me to try and trace his family so the process to send him home could be initiated,” Gauhar told The Express Tribune.
She said Puri gave her photographs and video footage of the boy so that his family could be traced.
The video footage was run by Express News on Tuesday and the station house officer in Mandi Ahmadabad Police Station in Kasur district was contacted. He confirmed that a boy of the same name went missing a year ago, and his parents had lodged an application. When the boy’s family was contacted, they recognised him through the footage, and confirmed his identity.
Ali went missing while returning to Lahore after spending holidays in Kasur. “Our bus stopped near a village close to the border. He got off to buy something but didn’t get back on, and I realised he was missing once I reached Lahore. I thought he probably did not want to come back, and will return home soon, but he didn’t. Now I learn that he crossed the border,” Kalsoom Bibi, Ali’s mother, said.
“I am thankful to all those who helped bring my son’s issue to limelight. I didn’t have the slightest idea that he would be in India,” Kalsoom told The Express Tribune. Kalsoom came to Lahore and met Gauhar to know further details about her son.
Story of three mothers
“The border has barbed wire at the point where Kashif crossed it. Many kids crawl under these wires and this is what he did out of curiosity, without realising it is a border. Indian authorities send these kids back when their families are located after due paperwork. And I am hopeful the same will happen in Kashif’s case,” Gauhar added.
“Ms Puri told me that a meeting between the Pakistani High Commission in Delhi and the Indian External Affairs Ministry officials is scheduled for September 28 in Amritsar. She said if the parents are traced until then, and the paper work is done, the case of the boy could be brought up in that meeting and the process to send him back to Pakistan could be initiated,” Gauhar said.
“This isn’t the story of a lost boy, or a Pakistani held in India. This is the story of three mothers - Archana Puri, who has a son of the same age; I also have a son of the same age; and we both felt the pain Kashif’s mother may have been enduring,” Gauhar said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2012.
Art transcends boundaries. In the case of a 13-year-old Pakistani boy, though, it helped bring them down.
A performance of Ajoka Theatre’s famous play Bullah helped reunite Kashif Ali, a boy who had mistakenly crossed the border into India in October 2011, with his parents. Ali had crossed the border near Kasur, was arrested by Indian authorities and sent to a shelter, Child Observation Home, in Faridkot.
Indian authorities tried to trace his family in Pakistan through the Pakistan High Commission, but received no response.
Family reunion
Help arrived in the most unusual way. On September 21, Ajoka performed at a local fair in Faridkot, organised annually to commemorate Baba Farid, where a local sessions judge Archana Puri met Madeeha Gauhar, creative director of Ajoka.
“She told me that she was talking to me not as a judge, or an Indian, but as a mother. She narrated the story of a Pakistani boy whose family could not be traced. She asked me to try and trace his family so the process to send him home could be initiated,” Gauhar told The Express Tribune.
She said Puri gave her photographs and video footage of the boy so that his family could be traced.
The video footage was run by Express News on Tuesday and the station house officer in Mandi Ahmadabad Police Station in Kasur district was contacted. He confirmed that a boy of the same name went missing a year ago, and his parents had lodged an application. When the boy’s family was contacted, they recognised him through the footage, and confirmed his identity.
Ali went missing while returning to Lahore after spending holidays in Kasur. “Our bus stopped near a village close to the border. He got off to buy something but didn’t get back on, and I realised he was missing once I reached Lahore. I thought he probably did not want to come back, and will return home soon, but he didn’t. Now I learn that he crossed the border,” Kalsoom Bibi, Ali’s mother, said.
“I am thankful to all those who helped bring my son’s issue to limelight. I didn’t have the slightest idea that he would be in India,” Kalsoom told The Express Tribune. Kalsoom came to Lahore and met Gauhar to know further details about her son.
Story of three mothers
“The border has barbed wire at the point where Kashif crossed it. Many kids crawl under these wires and this is what he did out of curiosity, without realising it is a border. Indian authorities send these kids back when their families are located after due paperwork. And I am hopeful the same will happen in Kashif’s case,” Gauhar added.
“Ms Puri told me that a meeting between the Pakistani High Commission in Delhi and the Indian External Affairs Ministry officials is scheduled for September 28 in Amritsar. She said if the parents are traced until then, and the paper work is done, the case of the boy could be brought up in that meeting and the process to send him back to Pakistan could be initiated,” Gauhar said.
“This isn’t the story of a lost boy, or a Pakistani held in India. This is the story of three mothers - Archana Puri, who has a son of the same age; I also have a son of the same age; and we both felt the pain Kashif’s mother may have been enduring,” Gauhar said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2012.