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Sikh pilgrim who converted to Islam, married her lover in Pakistan set to be deported
Sarabjeet Kaur was expected to be handed over to the Indian authorities at the Attari-Wagah check post.
Pakistani authorities were set to deport Sarabjeet Kaur, the Sikh woman from Punjab who had gone to Nankana Sahib on pilgrimage in November and did not return, back to India on Monday.
Kaur had departed for Pakistan with the Sikh Jatha for the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev in November. Later, she went missing from the jatha and converted to Islam to marry a Pakistani man, Nasir Hussain of Sheikhupura district.
A joint team of the Intelligence Bureau and local police arrested Sarabjit and her lover, Nasir. The Pakistan government has now started the process to deport Sarabjit to India. She is expected to be handed over to the Indian authorities at the Attari-Wagah check post on Monday evening.
However, there was no update on the deportation until 11:30 pm.
Converted, married in Pakistan
Days after she went missing in November, Sarabjeet Kaur was reported to have married a local Muslim man in Pakistan’s Sheikhupura district last week, some 50 km from Lahore, and converted to Islam.
On Saturday, November 16, a Pakistan police official told news agency PTI, “Kaur contracted marriage with Nasir Hussain of Sheikhupura district, some 50 kms from Lahore, a day after her arrival in Pakistan on November 4 and declared that she converted to Islam and married out of free will.”
“The couple has gone into hiding, and police are searching for them,” the official had added.
Days later, on Tuesday, 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 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.
Sarabjit Kaur has reportedly changed her name to Noor Hussain. An 18-second purported video of the couple’s ‘nikah’ surfaced on social media and Pakistani media recently, in which she is heard saying that she is converting to Islam willingly.
In the video, Sarabjit Kaur can be seen saying she is willingly converting to Islam. “I love Nasir and have known him for the past nine years. I am currently divorced and willingly marrying him,” she said.
