Indian in Pakistan moves court against ‘forced marriage’

ISLAMABAD – An Indian girl, who is currently in Pakistan, moved a local court Monday, claiming that she was forced to marry a Pakistani citizen at gunpoint.

Judicial Magistrate Syed Haider Shah conducted the hearing on her complaint filed under the section 200 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

Indian Dr Uzma alleged in her plea that Pakistani Tahir Ali harassed and abused her after she came to Pakistan. She expressed her resolve not to leave the Indian High Commission in Islamabad till her safe repatriation.

She told the court that she met Tahir in Malaysia and they became friends. She said Tahir ‘forced her to get a Pakistani visa and visit him’.

“As I crossed the Wagah border into Pakistan, Tahir picked me up in a car and, after travelling a short distance, I was drugged and fell unconscious,” she alleged, adding that when she woke up at 10pm, she found herself in Tahir’s home in a strange village with strange people.

She went on to say: “That night, Tahir sexually assaulted and tortured me and threatened to kill me if I did not sign the Nikahanama (marriage contract) next day. The next day, they brought me to a dirty and strange house, forced me to sign the marriage contract at gunpoint. They made me marry forcefully for which I was not mentally ready as soon as marriage was done. Then, they started torturing me mentally, beating me and made me do all the household work.”

INP adds: Tahir accused the Indian mission of ‘detaining’ his wife as she went there to apply for visa – a claim rejected by the Indian officials.

Tahir reported to the Islamabad’s Secretariat Police Station that his wife hails from New Delhi and the pair first met in Malaysia. “Uzma travelled to Pakistan on May 1 via the Wagha border, and we got married in Buner on May 3,” Tahir stated.

According to Tahir, after the couple tied the knot, Uzma called her brother in New Delhi to relay the news to him. Her brother asked her to visit India on her honeymoon and told her she could find a man, named Adnan, at the Indian embassy who would be able to sort out their visas for the trip, Tahir alleged.

“At the Indian embassy window, she asked about Adnan. A while later, a man came out and took her inside through gate number six. I waited and waited, and then at 7pm I asked at the embassy gate if my wife was inside. They told me no one was inside,” Tahir claimed.

He added that he then returned to the main gate on a shuttle bus, and noted that none of the three phones surrendered to the embassy by the couple at the time of entrance were returned to him.

After waiting for quite long, Tahir inquired about his wife but the commission refused to return her back.

He added: “Two days after we got married, we visited the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to obtain an Indian visa, following which I lost contact with my wife.“

The Indian High Commission told Pakistan Foreign Office that Uzma had approached them with the request to be repatriated to India after learning about Tahir’s first marriage and his four children.

The Pakistani authorities declared that the Indian citizen did not disclose her plans to marry in Pakistan when she applied for the visa and instead expressed her intent to visit her relatives in Pakistan.

The Indian mission arranged an attorney for Uzma and provided her with transportation and security to appear before the court for hearing. The court issued notices to respondents, including her husband, and put off the hearing until May 11.

Source: The Nation