Indian woman says she was forced to marry Pakistani

An Indian woman who has taken refuge in the Indian High Commission here says she was forced to marry at gunpoint a Pakistani man she fell in love with, a media report said on Monday.

Uzma has also told Indian diplomats that she was not aware that Pakistani Tahir Ali was already married and a father of four.

The Foreign Office said the Indian High Commission had told Pakistani authorities that 20-year-old Uzma did not wish to live with Ali.

Ali told Geo News that Uzma was aware of his earlier marriage but if she "does not wish to live with him, it is her right to do so".

According to Ali, he met Uzma, who is from New Delhi, in Malaysia. She travelled to Pakistan on May 1 via the Wagha-Attari border and got married to him at Buner on May 3.

Two days later, Ali and Uzma visited the Indian mission to obtain an Indian visa. But his wife never stepped out of the building and staffers at the High Commission denied she was there.

Uzma claimed her immigration documents were snatched after she reached Pakistan and she was harassed and tortured regularly while living with her Pakistani husband.

She filed a case under the Pakistan Penal Code and recorded her statement in front of a magistrate on Monday, saying she did not want to leave the Indian mission in Islamabad till she could safely travel back to India.

According to officials, Uzma's immigration documents state she travelled to Pakistan on a visit visa.

They said the Indian woman did not disclose her plans to marry in Pakistan when she applied for visa and instead expressed her intent to meet her relatives in Pakistan.

--IANS

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