'She was like a mother to me', cries Hamid Ansari, released from Pakistan due to Swaraj's efforts

New Delhi, August 07: Welling tears over the eye brims, a software engineer who was repatriated to India following former External Affairs Minister’s relentless quest for his release from Pakistan jail, got poignant and sentimental, hearing to the shocking news of Sushma Swaraj’s demise on Tuesday.

 

‘It was a rumour we thought’, said Hamid Ansari, who was detained and arrested six years back after he went to Pakistan to meet a woman he had befriended through social media. Swaraj, as an External Affairs Minister played a vital role in releasing Ansari by year 2018.

 

Expressing deep grief, he said, “I have deep respect for her and she'll always stay alive in my heart. She was like a mother to me. After my return from Pakistan, she guided me to look ahead. It's a big loss for me”.

 

“When the news of her demise broke last night, we thought it might be a rumour because how can such a person leave us so early”, he added feeling powerless to sway tears as he spoke of Swaraj, who was largely instrumental for his release.

 

“It was only last year when I met her”, he said, “she was very healthy and happy to meet me. She treated me like her son but it’s not even a year. The loss is irreplaceable in any way and it is very heart-breaking. I don’t have words to describe the pain that I’m going through right now”.

 

Ansari went missing after he was taken into custody by Pakistani intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat in 2012 and finally in reply to a habeas corpus petition filed by his mother, Fauzia Ansari, the high court was informed that he was in custody of the Pakistan Army and was being tried by a military court.