An Indian from Kerala becomes Pakistani by happenstance, gets a Pakistani passport in order to get back home to India, is found by the police two decades later, is taken to the Wagah-Attari border to be deported to Pakistan, and is refused exit by Indian immigration because he lacks papers to prove he is Pakistani. He returns to Kerala.
And Kerala is where C Ibrahim is today, waiting for the authorities –including an Indian Home Ministry that is keen to ferret out Pakistanis in hiding and send them packing – to decide what to do with him.
Ibrahim, 55-years old, was suffering from arthritis and infection when the police took him by train all the way to Wagah and brought him back. But his terminally harrassed look in the picture (courtesy The Hindu) exposes not only his physical condition but also his state of mind as a long-time fugitive Indiapakistani.
Back in 1970 or so, then 22, Ibrahim boarded a boat to go to work in the Gulf, but was left stranded in Karachi. He spent nine years in Pakistan working as a labourer, realised it was easier to return home if he got himself a Pakistani passport. He succeeded in getting back to his native Malabar, married, had two daughters, and worked as a fish vendor. Until the police came calling.