New Delhi:
Dr Khalil Chishty, an 80-year-old Pakistani virologist who has spent many years at a prison in Ajmer, left for New Delhi from Ajmer today as he set out on his journey back home after 20 years.
82-year-old Chisty, facing life sentence in a murder case, was permitted by the Supreme Court to visit Pakistan for a temporary stay on May 10.
After receiving his passport from a local court in Ajmer, Dr Chisty boarded Shatabdi Express along with his brother Jamil Chisty and others.
"I am happy that I am going to my home land to meet my family and friends. I would like to offer thanks giving prayer as soon as I reach airport and thereafter I will go to my home," he told reporters after the train reached Jaipur railway station.
Dr Chisty said that he would also go to Lahore to meet Sarabjit Singh, the Indian national facing death sentence on charges of involvement in bomb blasts in Pakistan. Sarabjit has been languishing in Pakistan's jail for the last 22 years. Diplomatic efforts are on to reduce his death sentence to life imprisonment.
"When I am in Pakistan, I would like to visit the whole of the country. I would like to go to Lahore and meet Sarabjit Singh," he said.
An activist who is accompanying him said that Dr Chisty will go to Pakistan High commission in Delhi on Wednesday and after completing remaining formalities, he will take a flight for Pakistan.
She said that his son Tariq is in Delhi and is waiting for him. As per the Supreme Court's direction, he will have to deposit his passport at the Indian High Commission in Pakistan and return to India by November 1.
Dr Chisty came to Ajmer in 1992 to visit his ailing mother. However, he allegedly got himself involved in a brawl in which one of his relatives was killed. The top court finally granted him bail on April 9 and since then he was living with his brother's family in Dargarh area in Ajmer.