BAREILLY: As parents of the wife of ISI spy Mohd Aijaz, who was arrested in Meerut last week, arrived in Bareilly to take her back home to Bihar, Asma said she will not bring up the baby of a Pakistani spy. She said she does not want to bear the stigma of being called the “mother of a spy’s child.”

Earlier on Sunday evening, Asma’s mother and father arrived in the city by train from Arrah, Bihar. Once they reached their daughter’s house, the three wept bitterly.

Talking to newsmen, Asma’s father, Shamsher Ali, said, “As news about the arrest of our son-in-law reached our village, Azimabad, it seemed the whole world had turned against us. We have been socially ostracized for no fault of ours. It was our relative who concealed the real identity of Mohd Aijaz alias Mohd Kalam.”

A distraught Asma, who said she had been cheated, said she was firm in her stand that she will not bring up the child and give it away for adoption to a government orphanage. “The baby is an offspring of a spy, who is an enemy of the country. I can’t bear this stigma,” she said.

Talking to TOI, a senior special task force (STF) officer, Ajay Pal Singh, said, “The woman is perhaps right that she was unaware about her husband’s real identity. After questioning her on more than two occasions we can make out that she was kept in the dark by the person who arranged her marriage and later by Aijaz. Now, she has left for her native place along with her parents. If need arises, we will summon her for questioning.”

District probation officer Usha Tiwari said, “If the mother wants to leave the child in government custody, she can hand it over to the child welfare committee, which in turn would send the child to children's home in Rampur.”

Regarding the citizenship of the child, noted lawyer, Khalid Jilani, said, “Even if his father is Pakistani and mother Indian, if the child is born in India, it would be conferred Indian citizenship by birth as per provisions of Indian Citizenship Act 1955.”

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