Eight years after Pakistani national Muhammad Irfan was recorded as “missing” in the wake of the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings, he may be released from Amritsar Central Jail.

Pakistani officials visited his family, settled in Sargodha district of Pakistan Punjab, last Tuesday seeking details to ascertain his identity to secure his release in India.

An officer of Amritsar Central Jail told The Sunday Express, “Irfan is not being released today. Someone is coming to meet him from Delhi on Monday.”

A diploma student in computer hardware, Muhammad Irfan, then 28, had come to New Delhi for some purchases in connection with his studies. He had boarded the Samjhauta Express to go back, travelling on ticket number 391734 from Delhi to Attari, when blasts had ripped through the train on the intervening night of February 18-19, 2007, leaving 69 dead.

Irfan couldn’t be traced after the blasts and was declared missing after his elder brother Mubashar Hassan’s DNA didn’t match that of any of the victims.

Hassan told The Sunday Express that the SHO of Sargodha had visited their residence seeking documents to ascertain Irfan’s identity for his release.

The family said they were told that the police visit was on the orders of the Inspector General of Police of Punjab province. “The SHO visited us at our residence. They asked us to submit original documents regarding Irfan’s identity. They told us that the Indian and Pakistani governments are in the process of releasing him from Amritsar jail and they needed the documents,” Hassan said.

In May last year, another Pakistani who had been lodged in Amritsar jail, Showkat, had visited the family in Sargodha district after his release and told them Irfan was alive and lodged in “C wing” of the prison, serving term under the Passport Act.

The family had got in touch with Delhi-based anti-terrorism activist Ashok Randhawa when he had come to Pakistan in June 2015 for a wedding. While Randhawa had gone to the Amritsar jail to confirm if Irfan was there, the jail authorities had denied the same.

Randhawa told The Sunday Express the family had approached him again to tell him about the visit by the Pakistan police. “I have spoken to the jail authorities. They have told me to visit on Monday,” Randhawa said.