Indian woman ‘forced’ to marry Pakistani returns home

A young Indian woman, who said that she was forced to marry a Pakistani man at gun point, returned to India on Thursday via the Wagah border, with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj saying she felt “sorry for all that you have gone through”. Describing Uzma Ahmad as “India’s daughter”, Swaraj welcomed her to India.

“I am sorry for all that you have gone through,” Swaraj tweeted.

Uzma, who is in her early 20s, hails from New Delhi. She was allowed by the Islamabad High Court on Wednesday to return to India following a plea she filed with the court requesting its directive after her husband Tahir Ali took her immigration papers.

Accompanied by Indian mission officials and escorted by Pakistani police personnel, she crossed into India through the Wagah border crossing near Amritsar.

“The Indian woman was happy and excited to leave for her homeland,” a Pakistan Rangers official told the local media. She touched the ground after she entered Indian territory.

On Wednesday, the Islamabad high court handed over her original immigration documents after Tahir submitted them to the court a day earlier.

Uzma had petitioned the court on 12 May requesting it to allow her to return home urgently as her daughter from her first marriage in India suffered from thalassemia—a blood disorder characterised by abnormal haemoglobin production.

Tahir had petitioned the court, requesting that he be allowed to meet “his wife”. A single bench of Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani heard both the pleas and after hearing their arguments, he allowed Uzma to return to India.

She has said she was forced to marry Tahir at gunpoint. The two reportedly met in Malaysia and fell in love.

Uzma reached Pakistan on 1 May and travelled to the remote Buner district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province where she was married to Tahir on 3 May.

Later, she came to Islamabad and took refuge in the Indian High Commission.