Raiganj, Sept. 8: After more than seven years in Pakistan?s Lahore Central Jail, Ghulam Rabbani Sarkar, whose family had almost given him up for dead, returned home this Monday.

In March this year, the 33-year-old man was first allowed by the jailers to write home.

It was this letter that his father took to Union water resources minister and local MP Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, who finally managed to persuade the Indian external affairs ministry to take up the matter with its Pakistani counterpart.

As a result of the talks, Rabbani walked across the international border at Wagah and into the arms of his elder brother Ayub Ali Rabbani, who waited on the Indian side on the morning of August 31.

And then it was a long journey back to Delhi and then to Malda from where the two brothers piled onto a bus that took them home. Back at his village in North Dinajpur district, a relaxed Rabbani could not believe his luck.

He recalled the summer of 1997 when he was on the streets of Delhi, selling odds and ends. ?It was in April 1997 that I met a Bangladeshi youth called Habib in Delhi,? he said.

It was Habib who told him about a group in Pakistan who smuggled people looking for jobs to Greece.

Three months on, the duo managed to sneak into Pakistan through the Wagah border under the cover of darkness.

?A day after we entered Pakistan, both of us were arrested. We were produced before a court and sentenced to eight months in prison. It was like living in hell,? said Rabbani.

?We were beaten and tortured, and not allowed to write back home. When my term ended, the jail authorities formally declared that I would be released,? he said.

The declaration was, however, only in paper as Rabbani was to realise soon.

According to him, the jailers never answered any of their queries. As eight months rolled into seven years, the prisoner was finally allowed to pen a few lines to his family.

Rabbani added that at the time of his release, there were 84 Indians, including four women, who were still incarcerated at Lahore Central Jail. All these people, like him, had already served their sentences.

Rafisuddin Mohammed, Rabbani?s father, described his son?s return as a ?miracle?.

?Seven years after my younger son went missing, we got to know that he was alive. We immediately contacted the local administration and took up the matter with Priya babu. The Lord has brought him back to us,? said a misty-eyed Rafisuddin.

Later, he got a letter from the external affairs ministry informing that Rabbani would be released at the Wagah check post on August 31.

On the day itself, Ayub spent an anxious two hours scanning each vehicle that stopped on either side of the frontier.

?It was just before noon that the Border Security Force informed me that my brother had arrived and was waiting for me at the checkpost. He looked thin and pale. His eyes had lost their shine,? Ayub remembered. ?But whatever it is, he is back with us,? he added with a smile.

When contacted, Das Munshi said he had heard about the stranded Indians at Lahore jail and was pursuing the matter with the external affairs ministry.