Border Security Force (BSF) in Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch apprehended a 20-year-old engineering student from Maharashtra as he was trying to enter Pakistan on foot to meet a woman he had befriended on social media.
Aadhar card and other documents he carried identified him as Zishan Mohammad Siddiqui, a resident of Khwajangar in Maharashtra’s Osmanabad town.
“Siddiqui was held by the BSF on Thursday night and later handed over to the local police,” Kutch-East Superintendent of Police, Parikshita Rathod, told media persons in Kutch.
“The local police had issued an alert after a motorcycle with Maharashtra registration number was found abandoned near Dholavira village in the Rann of Kutch on Thursday. The BSF team nabbed the man as he was walking towards the border to enter Pakistan,” Ms. Rathod said.
According to available details, Siddiqui left his home in Osmanabad on July 11 to meet the girl in Pakistan as no means of public transport was available due to the lockdown.
“He came from Maharashtra on his motorcycle, which he parked near Dholavira, and started walking towards the border,” officials from Kutch said. According to BSF personnel, he was using Google Map for navigation.
After his disappearance, his family members had approached the Osmanabad city police station and lodged a missing person complaint. Based on his mobile phone’s location and from his social media accounts, it became evident that he was in Gujarat and intended to cross the border to meet the girl.
The cyber wing of the Osmanabad police traced his whereabouts to an area near Kutch and the details were shared with the Gujarat police.
Police then shared details with the BSF and other agencies since it was clear that he intended to cross the border.
