E-Paper
Sikh woman who married Pak national to be deported
Sarabjit Kaur, a Sikh woman who married in Pakistan, faces delayed deportation after her visa expired. Legal issues and past criminal history complicate her case.
Sarabjit Kaur, 48, who married a Pakistani native during a pilgrimage, is likely to be deported from Pakistan after she was taken into custody by authorities on Sunday.
A resident of Amanipur village in Kapurthala, Sarabjit—who adopted the name Noor Hussain after marriage—was scheduled to be handed over to Indian authorities at the Attari-Wagah checkpost on Monday. However, till the filing of this report, she had not entered Indian territory, with reports from Pakistan indicating that her deportation had been delayed for reasons yet to be clarified.
As per available information, Sarabjit was arrested by Pakistan security forces on January 4, after her single-entry visa had expired.
“All the formalities related to deportation were completed, and we were waiting for final clearance from the Pakistan counterparts. However, as per reports, her deportation has been delayed at the last minute due to reasons which are still unclear,” said a senior immigration official at the Attari-Wagah checkpost.
Sarabjit was part of the 1,932-member Sikh jatha (group of pilgrims) that entered Pakistan on November 4 for Guru Nanak Dev’s 556th birth anniversary (Gurpurb) celebrations and went missing from Nankana Sahib. She then converted to Islam and married a Pakistani native, Nasir Hussain, 43, of Nayi Abadi, Sheikhupura, Pakistan, on November 5.
The ‘nikah nama (marriage certificate)’ of both Sarabjit and Nasir was widely shared on social media. Even an 18-second video of their ‘marriage’ also went viral.
Legal proceedings underway
The couple was arrested by the Pakistan police after the matter came to light on November 13, but were later released as Kaur was on a legal pilgrimage visa valid for two months.
On November 18, the couple approached the Lahore high court and complained that the police were harassing them to end their marriage and that an illegal raid was conducted at their home in Sheikhupura’s Farooqabad.
Following this, the Lahore high court judge justice Farooq Haider, ordered the police to leave the couple alone. In the petition, Kaur stated that her husband is a Pakistani citizen and that she has contacted the Indian mission to obtain Pakistani nationality.
A parallel petition was also filed in the Lahore high court, challenging the violation of visa rules.
Kapurthala’s senior superintendent of police, Gaurav Toora, said the whole issue has been looked after by the central agencies. “We take action against her only after the directions from the agencies,” said Toora.
Amritsar rural DSP Yadavinder Singh said they came to know from the agencies that Kaur would be deported and handed over to Indian authorities.
“So far, there is no confirmation about exactly when she will be handed over to Indian authorities,” he said
Shady past
After her marriage to Pakistan national came to light, the intelligence officials from central agencies also visited Kaur’s native village and met her sons to get information about her.
The police said she was staying at Amanipur village along with her two sons, while her husband, Karnail Singh, divorced her and has been in Britain for the past 15 years.
The police said that Kaur has a criminal background and has three cases of cheating and fraud registered against her at Bathinda’s Kotfatta police station and Kapurthala city police station. “Her passport carries the permanent address of Malout in Muktsar district and mentions her father’s name. Surprisingly, she didn’t mention her citizenship and passport number in the immigration form submitted at the time of applying for a Pakistan visa,” the cops added.
The police said both her sons also have a criminal history, as 10 FIRs of fraud, assault, and cheating were registered against them at several police stations.
Not first incident
This is not the first such incident, as in 2018, then 31-year-old Kiran Bala, a woman from Garhshankar town in Hoshiarpur district, converted to Islam and became Amna Bibi to marry a Muslim man while on a pilgrimage to Pakistan. She had been married to a mechanic, who died in a road accident in 2013, leaving behind her two sons and a daughter. She went to Pakistan on pilgrim visa on April 12, 2018, only to go missing. She emerged after converting and marrying a Pakistani citizen on April 16. She filed an application for a visa extension to the Pakistani government, citing “threat of assassination” if forced to return. At present, she is staying in Lahore.
