Based on a report published in The Indian Express in June, the NHRC, took suo motu action, directing that the investigation be conducted by Senior Superintendent of Police (Investigation division) Ashok Chakravarthy.

The two children -- Mohammed Ashraf Abdul Hamid and Ashiq Ali -- illegally and separately crossed the border at Attari, Punjab sometime in 1996 with dreams of Bollywood in their eyes. Once discovered, they were transferred to New Delhi by the Mumbai Juvenile Welfare Board (JWB) on June 11, 1997 after ``exhausting'' their ``efforts to repatriate the children to their home country''. They were sent to the Alipur Children's Home on June 26, 1997.The order of the Delhi JWB -- which reviewed the case in May 1998 --specifically mentioned that the probation officer at the Mumbai remand home wrote to the Pakistan High Commission on August 29, 1996 and on December 17, 1996, but received no response. And that a Delhi-based NGO, South Asian Coalition of Child Servitude (SACCS), wrote to them on March 6, 1997, which again failed to elicit a reply.

Pakistan High Commission officials however deny ever being contacted. In a letter to The Indian Express, second secretary Shuja Alam said, ``The High Commission has not received any of the letters mentioned in the report. SACCS was never directly involved in the case and had never followed up the case with the Pakistan High Commission.''

Yet, according to the JWB order, it was representatives of SACCS who suggested that photographs of the children be passed on to an NGO in Pakistan so that these could be released in the print and electronic media. The JWB felt this move would ``pressure the Pakistan High Commission to wake up from its slumber and take home theirjuveniles''.

Yet, according to Alam, ``... the two children were with the New Delhi Welfare Directorate since June 1997 and for a whole year none of the governmental organisations contacted the High Commission for their repatriation.''

While he may insist that the High Commission was never contacted, the evidence suggests that they acted only after this newspaper's report. The children have been in India for over two years now, but it was only on June 18 that the Pakistan High Commission sent someone to meet them.

Alam said their photographs have been taken, which will be flashed in newspapers across Pakistan. While the second secretary felt that the addresses provided by the children were sketchy, he believed they will hopefully be repatriated in ten days.

The JWB is especially worried about Ashiq Ali, who recently turned 18. A Board member said: ``He has crossed the juvenile age and cannot be kept in the home for much longer. If the Pakistan High Commission doesn't act soon, all the IndianGovernment can do is drop him near the border. His travel documents have to be provided by the High Commission.''

Sources at the Ministry of External Affairs said they would be only too willing to let the children return home but are waiting for some move from the Pakistan High Commission.