Indian woman alleges harassment by Pakistani husband, refuses to leave embassy until repatriated
Twenty-year-old Uzma also approached a local court claiming she had been forced to marry Tahir Ali at gunpoint.
A 20-year-old Indian woman on Monday said she would not leave the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, till she was repatriated “to her homeland” with “full security”. On Sunday, she had filed an application at the judicial magistrate’s court in Islamabad, alleging that she had been forced to marry a Pakistani citizen at gunpoint, Hindustan Times reported.
In her plea, the woman – recognised only as Uzma – claimed that her husband Tahir Ali had been harassing her and had confiscated her immigration documents, PTI reported quoting Pakistani channel Geo News.
In her plea, the New Delhi woman said she got to know her husband in Malaysia and had contacted him after she returned to India. Uzma alleged that the man had “forced” her to get a Pakistani visa to visit him and that he had drugged her soon after picking her up from the Wagah border.
After she woke up the same night in a “strange village with strange people”, she said Ali had “sexually assaulted and tortured” her and threatened to kill her, as well. “Next day, they brought me to a dirty and strange house, they took my signature on nika nama [marriage contract] at gunpoint,” Uzma claimed in her plea.
Spokesperson for the Pakistani Foreign Office Nafees Zakaria, however, had a different account on Sunday. He said that according to the Indian High Commission, the 20-year-old had claimed she had found out after marrying Ali that he was already married and has four children.
Zakaria had also said on Sunday that the Indian woman had “gone missing” from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad last week and was “stranded” inside the building, Dawn reported. According to the report, Ali is a resident of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and had been working as a taxi driver in Malaysia eight months ago. He is believed to have requested for help lodged at the Secretariat Police Station in Islamabad.
The police on Monday confirmed that a security officer at the Indian Embassy had said that Uzma was inside the embassy premises. Another official at the consulate told Dawn that the woman had sought refuge there.