Shah Rukh Khan's Pakistani fan to be released from jail

Nasir Sultan, a 15-year-old Pakistani boy who was jailed in Punjab after illegally crossing the border to meet Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, will be handed over to Pakistani authorities Friday.

'He will be released around 11 a.m. We will hand him over to the Pakistani authorities,' Amritsar's Deputy Commissioner of Police K.S. Pannu told IANS.

The police decided to allow Nasir to cross the Attari-Wagah border, about 30 km from here, after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) gave their clearance in the matter.

Nasir was arrested by the Border Security Force (BSF) in September from an area near the India-Pakistan border.

The boy, an avid fan of Shah Rukh Khan, said that he came from Pakistan in August to meet the superstar and to participate in a TV reality singing contest.

Nasir was lodged at the juvenile jail in Punjab's Faridkot town, about 250km from Chandigarh. He was booked under the Foreigners Act and the Passport Act for entering India illegally.

Nasir, a Class 10 student, is a resident of Dir in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) that is witnessing intense fighting between the militants and security forces.

He left his house on the morning of Aug 14, saying he would return in the evening but called his parents after about a month to inform them that he was in jail in India.

A petition was filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh in November seeking the release of Nasir since he was innocent. Pakistan's human rights activist Ansar Burney had come to India to plead for his release.