Home coming: Runaway kid returns home after a year

Kashif Ali had crossed the border in hope of meeting Ajay Devgan.

LAHORE:

Among the five Pakistani prisoners released on Tuesday by India was Kashif Ali, 13. It was in October 2011 that Ali was reported missing by his family. A year later, he is back home.

A student at a madrassa in Lahore, Ali was returning from a visit to Kasur when he got off the bus to buy something and didn’t get back on. He says he had crossed the border “because I wanted to go to [Mumbai] to meet Ajay Devgan. I like him a lot.” He was arrested, held by the police and later shifted to Children Jail (Child Observatory Home) in Faridkot.

His mother Kalsoom Bibi was at Wagha to receive the son she feared she had lost forever. She broke into tears when the two embraced. Later, talking to reporters Kalsoom Bibi remarked, “He’s grown up a little.”

“I was treated well. They gave us good food,” said Ali. He also made friends at the shelter, “Rahul and Haroon were my best friends,” he said,” We used to play basketball and cricket.”

Ali said he couldn’t meet Devgan but used to watch movies starring him on a television in the kitchen. “I watched a lot of Indian films there,” he added. Ali said he had learnt to write his name in Hindi too.

Also present at the border was Madeeha Gauhar, Ajoka theatre’s creative director. It was on September 21, when Ajoka performed at a fair in Faridkot, to commemorate Baba Farid, where a local sessions judge Archana Puri met Gauhar and told her about a Pakistani boy whose family could not be traced. Puri gave her photographs and video footage of the boy to help locate the family. The video footage was run by Express News on August 25 and Ali’s family recognised him.

His case was discussed at a meeting recently held in Amritsar between Pakistani and Indian authorities, which had resulted in the boy’s early release.

“Ajoka will make a play on his story,” said Gauhar, “We have already received an invitation from Baba Farid festival’s organisers in Faridkot to stage the play there next year.”

She told The Express Tribune that she was thinking of asking Ali to play himself in the play. “He has the potential… He is more than eager to become an actor,” she said. Gauhar said she would also try to arrange a meeting with Ajay Devgan if Ali goes to India as part of the Ajoka team.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2012.