Anju, the Indian mother of two children who travelled to a remote village in Pakistan, married her Facebook friend on July 25 after converting to Islam and now has a new name, Fatima.
The 34-year-old Indian woman was staying at her Pakistani friend Nasrullah’s home in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They became friends on Facebook in 2019.
They tied the knot in a local court of a district and sessions judge amid tight security. "Nasrullah and Anju's marriage was solemnised today and a proper nikkah was performed after she converted to Islam," senior officer at the Moharrar City Police Station in Upper Dir district, Muhammad Wahab, told PTI.
According to the police, both appeared in the court in Upper Dir in the presence of family members of Nasrullah, police personnel and lawyers.
They gave a statement saying they signed the nikkah of their own free will. She told the court that she had willingly come to Pakistan and is very happy here, Geo News reported. A police official said she was taken from the court to the house under security.
Earlier on Monday, both went on a sightseeing trip amid tight security.
‘Feeling safe’
Anju, who was born in Kailor village in Uttar Pradesh and lived in Alwar district of Rajasthan, shared a short video before her marriage in which she says she "feels safe" in Pakistan, Geo News reported on Tuesday.
"I want to give this message to all that I have come here legally and with planning as it was not about two days. I am safe here," she said in the video. "I request all mediapersons not to harass my relatives and children," she said. Anju is married to Arvind, who is in Rajasthan. They have a 15-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son.
Anju travelled to Pakistan legally from India via the Wagah-Attari border. According to an official document of the Ministry of Interior sent to Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi, she had been granted a 30-day visa, valid for Upper Dir only.
Nasrullah, a science graduate, is the youngest among five brothers. He had earlier given an affidavit to local authorities, stating that there is no love angle to their friendship, and Anju will return to India on August 20.
According to a senior police official from the region, Anju’s travel documents is in order and she has been allowed to stay with Nasrullah, who has been instructed to look after her.
"She travelled to Pakistan on a month-long visit visa and all her travel documents are valid and complete," Upper Dir District Police Officer (DPO) Mushtaq Khan said on Monday.
Anju’s husband Arvind told the media in Rajasthan that she left home on Thursday saying she was going to Jaipur but later the family came to know that she was in Pakistan. He said he was hopeful that she would return.
The episode is is similar to Seema Ghulam Haider's case. Seema, a Pakistani mother of four, sneaked into India to live with Sachin Meena, a Hindu man she got in touch with while playing PUBG in 2019. They live in the Rabupura area of Greater Noida, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police.
