AMRITSAR: To ascertain the exact age of Pakistani boy Nauman Arshad, a local court on Friday ordered a bone-density test and sought the report by April 15.
Varinder Pal Bhatia, advocate of the boy who was arrested at the Attari border on January 14 for illegally crossing into India, has procured a “certificate for children less than 18 years of age” and a school certificate from Pakistan that mentions Nauman’s date of birth as June 19, 1995.
Earlier, Arshad had written a letter from Central Jail, requesting the court to shift him to the Juvenile Home. The matter would be decided once the report came in, Bhatia told HT.
“We want Nauman to be shifted to the Juvenile Home. He has told me he was a Class IX student in Lahore, and came to the border out of curiosity to see India,” Bhatia said.
After his arrest on January 14 by the Border Security Force, he was declared a “big catch” for being a potential suicide bomber.
He was later handed over to the district police, which booked him under Section 3 of the Indian Passport Act and Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, which
are routine charges made in cases of illegal border crossing.
No terror-related evidence was later found against Nauman. However, he has been languishing in Amritsar Central Jail ever since. Bhatia said officials from the Pakistan Embassy had met the boy in the jail, and a Pakistani advocate and the boy’s family were in regular touch with him.
SOURCE-HT
