On Tuesday, a high court in Pakistan ordered the police to stop harassing the 48-year-old Indian Sikh woman Sarabjit Kaur who married a Pakistani man. The couple had met on social media and the woman converted to Islam after she came to Pakistan while travelling as part of a pilgrimage group for Guru Nanak Dev’s 556th birth anniversary.
Who is Sarabjit Kaur?
Sarabjit Kaur, a 48-year-old Indian Sikh woman, went to Pakistan earlier this month via Wagah border along with some 2,000 Sikh pilgrims for Guru Nanak Dev’s 556th birth anniversary.
While the group, led by Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj, returned to India on November 13, Kaur was found missing, alerting the Punjab police in India.
According to a PTI report, Kaur is a native of Kapurthala district’s Amanipur village in India’s Punjab.
What happened to Sarabjit Kaur?
Days after she went missing, 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.”
{{/usCountry}}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.”
{{/usCountry}}“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 on Tuesday to leave the couple alone.
In the petition, Kaur said that her husband is a Pakistani citizen and that she has reached out to 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.
However, HT.com couldn’t independently verify the authenticity of the video clip.
(With inputs from PTI)