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Seema Haider rerun: Rajasthan woman crosses over to Lahore for love
To be sure, while AnjuRafael travelled to Lahore on a valid visa, Haider entered India illegally through a circuitous route.
A 34-year-old woman from Bhiwadi in Rajasthan told her husband that she was travelling to Amritsar for work, but crossed over to Lahore in Pakistan to meet a man she fell in love with on Facebook, police officers in both countries said on Monday, describing a case that has similarities to that of Seema Haider, a Pakistani woman who came to India with her four children earlier this month to be with 22-year-old Sachin Meena, whom she met while playing an online game.
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To be sure, while AnjuRafael travelled to Lahore on a valid visa, Haider entered India illegally through a circuitous route, spent a week in jail, and her antecedents are being investigated by the Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorism squad.
The husband of the 34-year-old woman from Bhiwadi, Arvind Kumar, said that Anju left the house on Thursday saying she was going to Amritsar, but the family received a phone call from heron Sunday telling them she had gone to Lahore to meet Nasarullah, a man from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa she met and fell in love with on Facebook four years ago.
Also Read | ‘If I get Indian citizenship…’: Pakistan's Seema Haider as she falls sick in Greater Noida
No further details of their meeting and conversations were immediately available.
“Anju made her passport two years ago. Though she had never visited abroad, she would keep going to many places in India for work. She didn’t tell me that she is going to Pakistan. She said that she will be back in three to four days. I don’t want to file any complaint with the police immediately,” Kumar told reporters on Sunday.
Anju, an employee of Hyundai in Bhiwadi, has been married for 16 years and has two children. She had told officials in Pakistan that she met 29-year-old Nasarullah on Facebook four years ago, began chatting with him, and that they eventually fell in love.
Speaking to reporters in Pakistan, Nasarullah has said that they intend to get engaged in a few days.
“After that Anju will return to India to meet her family. We will get married in our next meeting in Pakistan. We kept trying for Anju’s visa for the last two years, and she was finally granted permission to visit Pakistan by crossing the Wagah border. We want to stay peacefully away from the media spotlight,” Nasarullah said.
The station house officer of the Upper Dir police station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Javed Khan, told HT that Anju’s visa and other documents were valid for travel to Pakistan. “The two visited the police station on July 21 as per the protocol of a foreign national’s visit. The woman has a valid visa for 30 days. We didn’t find any illegal immigration issue. Nasarullah told us that the woman has come only to visit the country. We will provide them with complete security from our side so that they can maintain their privacy,” he said.
In a video message from her Facebook account on Monday, Anju urged the media to respect the privacy of her family and kids. “I came here legally. I planned for this visit earlier. I want to let everyone know that I am safe here. I will return India within two or three days. Please leave my family alone,” she said.
Later, in an interview with Zee News, Anjusaid, “I just wanted to visit this place. I didn’t tell my family anything about it because I thought they won’t let me go. So I told them once I crossed the border and all the formalities were done. I have no intention to marry Nasarullah. I just wanted to hang out with him. I will be back to my family very soon.”
Meanwhile, the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) in Bhiwadi, Sujeet Shankar, said police were still checking if her travel documents were genuine.
“The police on Sunday went to check her background after receiving some information from the media. However, we haven’t been able to verify the validity of her visa with the external affairs ministry as no formal complaint was lodged yet…They are adults and can visit any country. We will investigate if there is a complaint.” he said.
The MEA has not commented on the situation.
Haider is currently under the radar of the anti-terrorism squad (ATC) in Uttar Pradesh radar for crossing the border illegally. She was arrested by police on July 4 for crossing from Nepal without a visa in May to be with Meena in Noida.
