Poonch: The return of 18-year-old Sajid to his home in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) has been delayed again. He has already spent five years in an Indian jail, but a wrangle between Indian and Pakistani authorities over the status of PoK citizens prolongs his agony. Saturday's exchange of prisoners between India and Pakistan provided relief to several families but not for Sajid.

Sajid inadvertently strayed into Poonch sector from Bandi Abbaspur area of Rawalakot district in PoK when he was barely 13. The boy lost his way going home and found himself on the Indian side. He was caught by the security forces who took him into custody. The court gave him a one-year sentence. When the boy completed it in 2003, the Public Safety Act was slapped on him to legalise his imprisonment. In 2004, this reporter interviewed Sajid at the Kot Bhalwal jail where the authorities confided that the boy was suffering from severe depression. As the early release of the boy was unlikely, he was taken to a children's home in Poonch.

The boy was elated when he was finally told that he would be able to go home on December 23, a month back, and that his name figured in the list of persons approved by India and Pakistan for repatriation.

But as luck would have it, the Pakistani authorities refused to take him through the Wagah route, on the India-Pakistan International Border, as he was a State subject and a citizen of Jammu and Kashmir. They wanted him to be returned through the Line of Control (LoC).

The Indian position on PoK citizens is not much different. As per the Jammu and Kashmir and Indian constitutions the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir, as it existed on 1947, is Indian territory and therefore residents of PoK are legally Indian citizens. The 1952 Delhi agreement signed between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah says, that in accordance with Article 5 of the Indian Constitution, persons who have their domicile in Jammu and Kashmir shall be regarded as citizens of India and as India lays its claim over PoK, its residents are also Indian citizens. In 1994, the Parliament passed a resolution saying that PoK is an integral part of India.

But this is where the similarities between the two countries end. Travel of persons through the LoC is restricted under the Ingress and Egress Act as per the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution.

According to the Act, a one-year sentence is given to anybody who illegally crosses the LoC. There are no such restrictions in the PoK or Pakistan Constitution.

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