Pakistan Thanks India For Reuniting 5-Year-Old Boy With Mother

Pakistan has thanked India for its cooperation in reuniting a five-year-old boy with his Pakistani mother nearly a year after he was 'deceitfully' taken to India by his father.

"We are thankful to Indian authorities for their cooperation in this humanitarian matter," Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit tweeted.

The boy, Iftikhar Ahmed, was yesterday handed over to Pakistan Rangers by Indian authorities at Wagah where his mother was waiting for him for several hours.

"I am extremely happy to have my son back. I am thankful to the Pakistani government for its help for return of my child," Iftikhar's mother Rohina Kiyani had said yesterday at Wagah.

"I had lost all hope of getting my child back. It's not a less than a miracle for me," she said.

The boy's mother alleged that her estranged husband had lied to her that he was taking the child to a wedding along with him as he took him to Dubai and from there, to Kashmir in March 2016.

Rohina, with the help of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, had filed a custody case in an Indian court. After the case was taken up by the Pakistani High Commission and proven that Iftikhar was a Pakistani by nationality, the court ruled in her favour and ordered that the child should be returned to his mother in Pakistan.

Intelligence sources say the boy was brought to India through Nepal. The father and son had also spent some time in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir before that, they said.