Mysterious Vietnamese man detained in Kashmir

From Tribune

MUZAFFARABAD: A Vietnamese man has been detained for months in Azad Kashmir by puzzled authorities who were unable to understand him, officials said Thursday.

“I am Vu Gia Po from Khau Vai commune, Meo Vac district, Ha Giang province, Vietnam.” PHOTO: AFP

Vu Gia Po was arrested after being discovered wandering on foot without any identification in the town of Athmuqam, which lies on the Line of Control, police official Yasin Abbasi said.

The Line of Control is a heavily militarised zone and the de facto border between Pakistan and Indian-administered Kashmir, which the two countries have fought two wars over.

A Vietnamese government spokesperson in Hanoi said Po was detained “around October 2013″.

Pakistani officials were initially clueless about who he was and where had had come from.

“He looked Chinese or Japanese but could not speak any local language, he had no travel documents, no identification, nothing,” Abbasi told AFP.

“He could not speak or understand English and we were not able to speak his language, it was a nightmare,” he said.

Po was detained for several months and questioned by various government agencies before being handed over to police. During that time it was unclear what authorities did to ascertain his identity.

Months later, local administration officials succeeded in identifying his nationality by showing him the flags and currency of a number of East Asian countries.

“When we showed him the flag and currency of Vietnam, he reacted and then we understood that he is from there,” Arshad Mirza, a senior district official in Neelum told AFP.

A video of Po was then posted on the website of Vietnam’s popular Thanh Nien newspaper (http://goo.gl/wczeJD).

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