This Article is From Aug 30, 2019

Chinese Army Veteran's Fight To Reunite With Family In India

Wang Qi was captured in 1963 after he strayed into the Indian territory. He spent years jailed in Rajasthan, UP and Punjab.

Chinese Army Veteran's Fight To Reunite With Family In India

Wang Qi's with his family in Madhya Pradesh.

Tirodi, Madhya Pradesh:

When Chinese army veteran Wang Qi was captured in 1963 after he strayed into the Indian territory, little did he know that it would take him decades to make his way back home. He would spend the next six years in jails in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab before being released by a court order in 1969.

After his release, he was relocated to Tirodi town in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district. He married a local woman and had three children. People in the town gave him the name "Raj Bahahdur".

With family in two different countries, Wang Qi, 80, would travel back and forth to see them. It was only two years ago that he was reunited with his siblings in China. Then, tragedy struck.

After spending a few months in China, he had to return to India to be with his dying wife. Two months after her death in October, 2017, he went back to China. He was back in India in April, 2018 to be with his children.

Wang Qi's son Vishnu Wang says that he has not been issued a visa by India after he left for China in October, 2018. "He wants to be with us again. With Indian authorities not issuing him fresh visa, we don't know if we will meet again," he told NDTV.

"He applied for paper visa with the Beijing Embassy in April this year, but couldn't get the expired visa renewed. Then, he applied for e-visa in Delhi but didn't get it. My father again applied for paper visa at the Indian Embassy in Beijing in July but there has been no positive outcome," he added.

Vishnu Wang claims that he has sent repeated mails to officials at Indian Embassy in Beijing as well as officials at Foreign Ministry in New Delhi. He longs for his father to meet his children.

Wang Qi is now staying at a hotel in China's Shaanxi province, close to the village where the families of his two brothers and sisters live. "He has to travel 1200 km to Beijing to for updates on his visa renewal," his son said.

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