‘To stay put in High Commission till papers are recovered’

A 20-year-old Indian woman, who has approached the High Commission in Islamabad with a request for repatriation, said on Monday she was forced to marry a Pakistani and was sexually assaulted and tortured.

The woman, identified as Uzma, daughter of Sagheer Ahmed from Delhi, crossed into Pakistan through Wagah Border on May 1. She was reportedly picked up by Tahir Ali whom she met in Malaysia last year where the two become friends. Pakistani TV channels had been running this “love story” over the weekend.

It emerged on Monday that she had sought refuge in the Indian High Commission.

Case filed

She filed a case against her husband at an Islamabad court on Monday. She said she met Tahir Ali in Malaysia where she went for two months last year. “He was soft-spoken, a nice person and spoke to me in English. When I came back to India and got again in touch with him, he told me to come to Pakistan. He sent me the sponsor letter and I crossed into Pakistan via Wagah border.” Ms. Uzma said Mr. Ali gave her some medicine as she sat in a car and she became unconscious and that when she woke she was at his residence. “That night Tahir sexually assaulted and tortured me and threatened to kill me if I do not sign the Nikah Nama (marriage papers). They took my signature on gun point. They made me marry forcibly for which I was not mentally ready,” she said in her statement before the judge. She said she realised it after coming to Pakistan that Mr. Ali was already married and also had four children.

Ms. Uzma also said if the court sends her with Mr. Ali it will endanger her life. “If I go to Tahir’s village only my dead body will come. My immigration papers were snatched by Tahir in front of the High Commission. I will stay inside the High Commission,” she said. Later, she told reporters that she want to return to India.

Mr. Ali is from Buner District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He told reporters that all charges levelled by Ms. Uzma were false and that she married to him with her free will. “She was well aware that I was already married and she went to the Indian High Commission on May 5 for an interview to get a visa for me. I accompanied her. But the High Commission officials asked me to wait outside. When my wife did not return after three hours I asked from the counter who told me to go back as she did not want to go with me,” he said.