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Two jailbirds—Sher Ali Keshwani, 76, and Mohammaed Nazir, 53—have become collateral damage of a strained bilateral relationship as they find themselves trapped in Hyderabad prisons years after completing their sentences. The reason? Pakistan has shown no interest in taking them back.
While Keshwani remains behind bars in Cherlapally Central Prison, Nazir, who had confessed to being a Karachi native after being apprehended by the Border Security Force (BSF) in 2013, has been incarcerated at Chanchalguda Central Prison.

Nazir, who had entered India via Nepal in 2006, assumed the identity of a Unani doctor using falsified documents after reaching Hyderabad and even married a local woman from Barkas in the city.
The legal journey was complex. While Nazir was initially accused of serious charges, including violations of the Foreigners Act, the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court in Nampally found him guilty only of fraudulently practising medicine.
The court dismissed charges related to illegal entry citing insufficient evidence of his Pakistani nationality. “Obtaining the PAN card, voter ID Card, driving licence, Aadhaar and bank account opening form by Nazir while professing himself to be an Indian national cannot be termed as illegal since the Pakistani nationality of the accused was tried and negatived in sessions court at Bhuj,” the court said in 2018, sentencing Nazir to simple imprisonment of five years. Nazir finished his jail term on Dec 9, 2018, as he had remained in judicial remand since Dec 11, 2013.
“We sent reminders to the Pakistan embassy via MHA every year to deport Nazir. He was also provided access to the Pakistan embassy consular services. But the Pakistan authorities have so far not accepted him as their citizen. On state govt’s orders, Nazir has been kept in safe custody at Chanchalguda prison,” said a Telangana prisons department official.
Keshwani, meanwhile, was arrested in Agra in 2004 and implicated in an espionage case in Hyderabad, but was acquitted in 2015. However, the court’s verdict highlighted a crucial ambiguity: while prosecutors couldn’t prove his Pakistani citizenship, Keshwani failed to establish his claimed Indian identity.
On March 8, 2024, Hyderabad Task Force police arrested Mallik Arshad Mahemood, a Pakistani national, from an internet cafe in Koti. From his room at Mutyal Bagh in Abids, officials recovered evidence that suggested he was gathering information on defence establishments in Secunderabad. Mallik confessed that he got Rs 30,000 from Mumbai-based Keshwani in Aug 2003. Keshwani was named as accused in the case and charged under the Foreigners Act, and Official Secrets Act along with criminal conspiracy and other sections.
When Keshwani’s term at the Agra prison was about to end in 2013, Hyderabad police brought him to the city on a transit warrant and lodged him at the Cherlapally prison.
On March 9, 2015, a local court acquitted him, observing, “The prosecution has not produced any evidence to show that Keshwani is a Pakistani national. At the same time, Keshwani has not produced any evidence to show he is an Indian and not a foreign national.” Arshad, who was convicted in the case, completed his sentence in 2016 and was deported to Pakistan in 2017.
Telangana prison authorities tried to deport Keshwani but failed. “Pakistan refused to accept Keshwani as their citizen. He remains in detention at Cherlapally prison through a state govt order,” a Cherlapally prison official said.
A PAKISTANI SENTENCED TO LIFE FOR ESPIONAGE
A third Pakistani prisoner, Ashique Ali, 55, represents a different category. Ashique is serving a life term at Cherlapally Central Prison in an espionage case registered at Nizamabad in 2002. He reached India on the Samjhauta Express on June 15, 2001, on a tourist visa to visit Delhi and Kanpur. He was caught at a telephone booth while talking to his Pakistani handlers on Jan 26, 2002, in Nizamabad. He was sentenced to life by a trial court in Nizamabad in 2005, and the high court upheld the conviction in 2018.
PAK MAN FREED IN 2023 BACK IN PRISON
Md Usman Ikram, 48, from Piplan in Pakistan, was arrested by Cyber Crime police of Hyderabad on June 1, 2018 from Chaderghat for blackmailing his Hyderabadi wife by threatening to upload videos of her minor daughter on social media. He was convicted and after completing his term, was freed in 2023. But he again landed in CCS as he was named in another domestic violence case, and he has been kept at the detention centre there for the past one-and-a-half years.
PAK DUO GETS RELIEF TO STAY IN VIZAG
A Pakistani father-son duo has been granted temporary relief by the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Hyderabad, allowing them to stay in Vizag beyond the Centre’s April 29 deadline for Pakistani nationals to leave the country. The duo has been residing in Vizag for the past two years as the five-year-old son undergoes psychiatric treatment following a head injury. The boy’s mother, a doctor and native of AP, holds an Indian passport and works at a hospital in the city. According to the police, the father’s presence is essential for the child’s treatment. The couple had applied for a long-term visa in 2024, but the application is still pending. After explaining their situation to Vizag police commissioner Shankabrata Bagchi, the matter was taken up with the FRRO, which permitted them to remain in the country.
‘ACCIDENTAL’ PAK GIRL WANTS TO STAY
A 26-year-old woman born in Pakistan but raised in Andhra Pradesh has been living in Dharmavaram on a longterm visa for nearly 19 years. Her Pakistani citizenship was ‘accidental’—her mother gave birth to her in Karachi in 1999 while visiting her father. The Kargil war forced the mother and child to remain in Pakistan for six years. By the time they returned to India in 2005, the girl acquired Pakistani citizenship. Since then, she has lived with her Indian parents, completed her schooling and is now in the final year of B Pharm. Her family’s attempt to secure Indian citizenship in 2023 was rejected, but a fresh plea is pending with the Centre. Dharmavaram police said she holds a long-term visa until 2029 and is permitted to stay with her parents as per central govt guidelines.