Asked about Indian prisoner Ansari, Pak PM says 'we will do our best'

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday assured that he will look into the case of a 33-year-old Indian prisoner, who has been languishing in a Pakistani jail after being arrested for illegally entering the country from Afghanistan, reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online.

Mumbai resident Hamid Nehal Ansari was arrested in Pakistan in 2012. He is currently lodged in the Peshawar Central Prison after being sentenced by a military court to three years' imprisonment for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card.

"I do not know about it…We will do our best," Premier Khan told a group of Indian journalists when asked about Ansari.

Pakistani security agencies accused Ansari of using a fake identity card in the name of "Hamza" and alleged that he entered Pakistan through Afghanistan without travel documents.

They charged him for "espionage" and "anti-Pakistan activities". Ansari denied the charges in his petition to the Peshawar High Court.

Ansari had gone 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.

He was convicted by the military court and jailed. His prison term is about to end, said officials.

(With inputs from agencies.)