Thiruvananthapuram: After showing an initial reluctance to claim the mortal remains of Zulfikar (48), a Keralite who died in a Pakistan jail, the family members of the deceased have now agreed to accept the same.
Accordingly, Zulfikar’s father Hameed has informed the Palakkad administration that the family will receive the body, which is expected to arrive on Tuesday.
Hameed said that the family was under the wrong impression that they will have to collect the body from the India-Pakistan border in Punjab.
“See, I had no information of my son for a long time. We spoke for the last time a few days after he moved to the Middle East in 2018. On Sunday, I got a call from the local police asking about my son, and I told them that I don’t have any clue. Later in the day, Zulfikar’s son called me and said that his father has passed away,” Hameed said.
“While the special branch of the police and the IB had at times asked me about Zulfikar, the NIA did not ask me anything about him,” Hameed added.
Another relative of Zulfikar told the media that the news that they got was an Indian fisherman had died in a jail in Pakistan.
According to the locals at Kappur in Palakkad, Zulfikar was last seen in his hometown in 2018 before he along with his family moved to the UAE.
However, in 2019, his wife and children returned to Palakkad after allegations surfaced that Zulfikar was a supporter of ISIS.
Since then, according to the locals, his wife and children never had any contact with Zulfikar.
When initially the news came that the authorities will take custody of the body at the India-Pakistan border and then transport it to his hometown, the family had declined to accept the same.
