Click to play videoSamastipur (Bihar): It’s a story that has all the makings of an Indo-Pak bonhomie potboiler and could inspire many a filmmaker on both sides of the border.
It’s the tale of 85-year-old Haji Shiekh Manzoor, a Pakistani citizen who wants to die and be buried next to his relatives in India.
The only obstacle is law.
"Saat pushtein hamari yahin soyi hua hai, uske saath hum bhi yahi soyenge. Filhal mera dusra koi iraada nahi hai (This is where my ancestors were buried. All I want is to rest with them and I have nothing else in mond as of now),” says Manzoor.
Separated from his family during Partition, Manzoor kept coming to India from Pakistan to meet them all these years.
The octogenarian, who reached Bihar from Pakistan last July for good, wants to spend the rest of his life with his sons and their family in Samastipur.
And then rest in peace with his wife and ancestors.
"Isske liye hum sari duniya se, dono sarkar se appeal kar raha hu. Ye ittela kar raha hu ki inke koi aisa rasta nikala jaye ki inki bachi hui zindagi hum logo ke saath guzre aur wo yahan apni mitti main dafan ho jaye” (I am appealing to the governments of both countries to let him spend the rest of his life in India and then finally be one with his homeland in death as well),” says Manzoors elder son Hayat Mohd.
But Manzoor is technically a Pakistan citizen and that makes his mercy pleas invalid, at least in the eyes of the law. Officials go by the rulebook and they say he's inviting trouble.
"The law doesn’t work on humanitarian grounds. A law is a law is a law and it’s the same for all,” says Bihar’s Home Secretary Afzal Amanullah.
Manzoor's visa has expired and he has been served notice to leave India or face deportation. He continues to pray before Allah and the authorities - a prayer for his freedom at last and for the do-gaz zameen (burial place).
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