17/10/2004
Pakistan Times National News Desk

KARACHI: One Thousand two hundred and one (1,201) Pakistani prisoners arrested in Muscat, (Oman) few months earlier for illegal entry and employment, released and returned back home on Saturday morning.

According to an ABWT press release, their release could become fruitful because of the efforts of human rights organisation the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, Pakistan Embassy at Muscat and the kind cooperation of the Omani Government.

The 1,201 men, who were arrested over the past month, arrived here in two different Boats, Al-Mohammadi 2 and Al-Fajar, at Ghasbandar, Keemari the port city of Karachi on Saturday, after leaving the Muscat capital of Oman four days ago on horrifying journey of sea. These 1,201 Pakistani prisoners were released and came back home because of the efforts of Pakistan Embassy at Muscat, Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International and kind cooperation of the Government of Oman in Muscat.

The Vice Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International and Prisoners Aid Society, Syed Fahad Burney, thanked and appreciated the kind cooperation of the Government of Oman for the release of Pakistani Prisoners. He also appreciated the efforts of the Pakistan Embassy in Muscat and it's Community Welfare Attache, Mr Sohail Siddiqi in this regard.

These Pakistanis were recently arrested by the Oman Boarder Security forces while entering into Muscat Illegally.

At the arrival of 1,201 released Pakistani prisoners from Muscat at Ghasbander, Keemari the Sea Port of Karachi the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, even of fasting month of Ramadan, has arranged special food, drinking water, clothes and other necessaries of life, as they were hungry and thirsty during sea journey. Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International also paid cash money to most of the returnees so that they could be able to
go their homes in far flung areas.

Touching scenes were witnessed at the sea port, as the returnees came out from the Cargo Boats Al-Mohammadi 2 and Al-Fajar, where they were received by the Vice Chairman of the Trust, Syed Fahad Burney and other volunteers of the Trust. These Pakistanis immediately felt down and bow down to thank Almighty Allah who saved their lives and they were been able to come back home.

Fahad Burney said the relatives of other prisoners in Foreign Jails could also be contacted to Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International at 6 Hassan Manzil, Arambagh Road, Karachi or by phone; (021) 2626274, 2628719, 2623382, 2623383 or by Mobile: 0300 8243459.

It may be recall here that in the last 24 years Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has so far been able to get release of more than 600,000 (Six hundred thousand) innocent prisoners who were illegally imprisoned in Pakistan as well as in other Countries. Some of them were released after 50 to 55 years of illegal confinement and some of them were even born in prisons and mental asylums and released after 35 to 40 long years only because of the hectic efforts of this organisation and Chairman Ansar Burney, Advocate.

The "Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International" has also arranged release of around 20,000 (twenty thousand) persons from mental asylums and mental wards of prisons, these were not mental cases but were kept in these asylums by some influential persons due to their own vested interests. These people after their release were reunited with their family, who in some cases, were not even aware that their relative was alive. Others were provided a shelter and other basic needs while they were given a more "normal" life outside captivity.

The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has also been successful to trace out more than 100,000 (one hundred thousand) children through the Bureau of Missing Persons (also part of ABWTI) who were safely delivered to their families. These include children who were set free from bounded labour camps and young girls who had been sold away for prostitution. Some of these children were brought back from foreign countries where they were taken for labour work, sex, camel riding, smuggling or to be sold off.

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