A week-long ordeal that had a happy ending for Riyaz Ahmed Lone who was arrested in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings and deported to India from Nepal for questioning.
NEW DELHI: It was a week-long ordeal but with a happy ending for Riyaz Ahmed Lone who was arrested in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings and deported to India from Nepal for questioning.
Lone, a Kashmiri resident settled in Kathmandu for over two decades, wants to forget his bitter experience when he was picked up by Nepal police on September three in a case of mistaken identity. "I treat it as a bad dream and want to put it behind me".
Thirty-nine year old Lone was full of praise for CBI, which took him into custody at the Indira Gandhi International Airport after he and another person hailing from Jammu's Doda district were deported from Nepal.
"I was treated in a very humane manner by the CBI officials who were cutting a sorry figure for the mistake committed by their Nepalese counterparts," Lone said from Kathmandu.
A resident of downtown Srinagar, Lone, who works in a holiday resort in Nepal, had migrated to the Himalayan Kingdom in 1983 and married a local. The couple have a fourteen-year-old son.
Lone and Ashfaq Taq were nabbed by Nepalese Police last week and kept in custody before they were handed over to the Indian government for interrogation in connection with the Mumbai blasts that claimed 257 lives.
"I was blind-folded for three days and all I could hear was voices saying that I was the same person whom the CBI is looking for in relation to the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts," he said, adding "I wondered how could this be possible as I had never visited the metropolis in my life."
Lone and Taq were mistaken for Riyaz Khatri and Salim Abdul Ghani Gazi, both of whom are wanted in connection with the blasts and had jumped bail in 1995.
Lone was taken to the Kathmandu airport blindfolded which was removed just before he boarded the flight to New Delhi.
Relieved after getting back his freedom, Lone says he has no complaints against Indian officials and is appreciative of the treatment meted out to him during his brief stay in India.
Lone said he informed the CBI and a TADA court that he was not the person they were looking for. He was later shifted to a Mumbai jail while the investigating agencies checked his antecedents.
The CBI discharged the duo after finding that they had no links with the blasts case.
His wife, Adfer Lone, is thankful that her husband has been cleared of suspicion. "This is the start of a new life for us," she said.
The Lone family is very critical of the manner in which the local authorities in Nepal handled the case. "We showed them all kinds of proof - driving license, ration card, voter card but they did not listen to us."
Adfer expressed her unhappiness over the attitude of Indian Mission in Kathmandu. "I went regularly to the Indian Mission but none from the Embassy was willing to help. They did not want to even meet me."
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}