A Pakistani woman and her Indian partner were reunited after a court released on them on bail following their arrest because she illegally crossed over to India to be with him.
Seema Ghulam Haider, 27, crossed the border to enter India via Nepal without a visa or citizenship to be with her Indian lover Sachin Meena whom she met and fell in love with while playing PubGduring the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
She also brought along her four children, all aged below seven. The couple started living in an apartment in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh in the country’s north.
On 4 July, the cross-border couple was arrested by the police after a neighbour of the Indian man complained to the authorities about the legitimacy of their marriage. Mr Meena’s father was also taken into custody for sheltering an illegal immigrant.
They were taken to the Luksar jail in the state, according to local media.
The landlord of the apartment where they were staying reportedly told the police that it “did not seem like the woman was from Pakistan. She wore salwar suit and sarees” – attire common to women from both the countries.
On Saturday, the couple walked free after a UP court granted them bail. Reports said that the two hugged as soon as they saw each other outside jail.
The court has however put a condition on Ms Haider – she has been asked to not change her residence till the case was ongoing. It was reported that the couple has been asked to mark their presence before the court regularly.
Hemant Krishna Parashar, a lawyer representing the Indo-Pak couple, said that the two married in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu earlier this year.
Ms Haider has claimed that she would not be safe in Pakistan.
“Seema told me in writing that she and Sachin had got married in Kathmandu, Nepal. I informed the court about this. I also argued that Seema first went from Pakistan to Nepal and then came to India. Those coming from Nepal to India are not required to carry a passport or have a visa,” Mr Parashar was quoted as saying by the local media.
Ms Haider has accepted Mr Meena religion and culture “as my own and changed the names of my four children, who call Sachin ‘baba’ [father]. Sachin’s parents have also accepted me, and I have adopted all their cultural practices and will continue to live with them”.
The couple told the court that they got married in Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu – a revered Hindu temple in the Nepal capital.
The couple has become famous on the internet and are being referred to in both countries as the real-life Veer Zara – a reference to a popular Bollywood movie by the same name which tells the story of two star-crossed lovers from India and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the Times of India reported that Ms Haider’s former husband Ghulam Haider, who works in Saudi Arabia, urged the Indian government to “send Seema back to Pakistan and unite with me”.
Ms Haider, who hails from Sindh province in Pakistan and lived in Karachi after her first marriage, claimed that her husband divorced her over the phone and they have not been in touch.
