After raising storm in Cup wake,‘missing’ Pak visitor returns home

Tracing his roots

Sources said Zammer,a non-resident Pakistani hailing from Karachi and settled in the UK,had come home to Pakistan about three months ago,and thence came to India to watch the March 30 India-Pak World Cup semifinal at Punjab Cricket Association in Mohali. He was given a 15-day visa to visit Mohali,Delhi and Mumbai.

After watching the Mohali match,Zammer went to Delhi and from there to Lucknow. “We questioned him before he departed about the places he visited in India and whether he got his visa extended,” an official told The Indian Express. “In reply,he said he came to Chandigarh and watched the semifinal match in Mohali the next day. Thereafter he went to Delhi,contacted the Pakistani embassy to got his visa extended from the Ministry of External Affairs,as he was a Pakistan Cricket Board invitee.’’

The officer added that Zammer claimed he had not violated any rules of the land,and that he spent his time in Lucknow,where he was born in 1944 and lived till his parents migrated to Pakistan in 1947.

Zammer told officials that he met his relatives and friends in Lucknow,and stayed on instead of going to Mumbai to watch the final match,despite having a valid visa for Mumbai.

Sources said Zammer’s extended visa expired today,so he crossed over to Pakistan on foot at the Attari border.

Clueless sleuths

Sources said much of the confusion arose as Zammer stayed in Chandigarh but did not get himself registered with Chandigarh Police,as is mandatory,so the police here did not know his whereabouts. The other Pakistani cricket fans had got themselves registered.

The intelligence agencies also cross-checked about his presence in Lucknow but could not trace him there. They found a Vishakhapatnam address in his visa papers and ran a check in the port city while also alerting airports across the country about him.