Amidst heightened tension between India and Pakistan, the two countries remain on the same page on humanitarian issues, as Islamabad allowed Indian woman Uzma to return home on Thursday, following a court’s order for her repatriation.
While Uzma thanked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Indian High Commission for her safe return, Sushma expressed gratitude to the Pakistani Government for facilitating Uzma’s journey back home.
Uzma narrated to the media her ordeal in Buner area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which she termed as a “backward, tribal” area where she was kept captive by one Pakistani national Tahir Ali, whom she had befriended in Malaysia.
Uzma claimed she was invited by Tahir and she went to Pakistan on a visitor’s visa and was forced to marry him upon reaching Buner. “It is easy to go to Pakistan but difficult to return. It is a well of death (maut ka kuan),” said Uzma, adding she feared for her life during her stay. “They could have sold me or used me in a risky operation,” she said about Tahir and his family. Uzma added she was not the only woman duped into marrying a man from Buner.
“There may be lots of girls there from different countries. People from Buner are mostly in Malaysia and they get girls from Malaysia, Philippines etc. Every man has at least two wives there. It is a dangerous area. You hear gunshots daily,” she said. Uzma said she saw women from different countries who had arranged marriages with Pakistani men leading unhappy lives.
She thanked the Indian Government, particularly Sushma Swaraj for making her return possible. “I am proud to be an Indian citizen. Sushma madam would call me daily to say we are fighting for you. You are India’s daughter,” she said, recounting the days she spent at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. On returning to India, Uzma said, “I could breathe the air of freedom. There is no place in the world like India.”
Sushma underlined the fact that the Pakistani Foreign Office, Interior Ministry and its Judiciary stood up for a hapless Indian woman.
“I am grateful to the Pakistan Foreign Office and Interior Ministry, which without keeping in mind the present tension between India and Pakistan treated Uzma’s case as a humanitarian issue and helped her. I am thankful to Pakistani lawyer Barrister Shah Nawaz Noon, who treated her like a daughter while fighting her case.
“I am also grateful to Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, who rejected the arguments by Tahir that the case was the issue of Pakistan’s prestige. I am glad Justice Kayani underlined that this is not an issue of Pakistan’s prestige but a humanitarian aspect,” Sushma said.
The Minister also lauded the efforts by India’s Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh to help Uzma. “It was a difficult decision to let her inside the High Commission because in Pakistan we live in difficult circumstances and all sorts of actors come into play there. However, the fear and pain on her face made us believe there was no way we could have left her alone, in a vulnerable situation,” Singh said.
