With Dr. Khalil Chisty and his wife and son at my Residence after his aquittal by the Supreme Court.
Dr. Khalil Chishty reminded me of Dr. Manette in Charles Dicken's novel 'A Tale of Two Cities' who was incarcerated in the Bastille for 18 years although he had committed no crime. Of course Dr. Chishty did not spend 18 years in jail, but his bail condition required him to remain in jail throughout his trial which took about 20 years, with the result that during this period he could not go to his home town Karachi and so he could not attend the weddings and other social functions in his family and could not meet many of his family members (many of whom were born after the incident of 1991 in which he was implicated) during this long period. I believe he and Sarabjit Singh and many others were victims of the mindset which makes both Indians and Pakistanis to regard people of the other country as devils instead of as humans. Great injustice was done to Dr. Chishty, but when he came to meet me with his wife and son after the Supreme Court verdict I found him cheerful. He is truly a great man. I told him that India and Pakistan were divided because of the mischievous British policy of divide and rule and the bogus two nation theory, and now we should reunite under a strong secular government, to which he wholeheartedly agreed.
