Pakistan is a ‘well of death’, says Uzma Ahmed after returning to India
Uzma Ahmed said she was forced to marry Tahir Ali, a resident of Buner in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, at gun point after she agreed to go to Pakistan to meet him.
india Updated: May 25, 2017 19:08 ISTHindustan Times, New Delhi
Uzma Ahmed said she was forcibly married to a Pakistani man.(HT Photo/Sameer Sehgal)
A young Indian woman, who said she was forced to marry a Pakistani man at gun point, returned on Thursday after a court in the neighbouring country facilitated her journey back home.
The plight of Uzma Ahmad, in her early 20s, had drawn countrywide sympathy and the Indian government had vowed to bring her back.
Her return also showed rare bonhomie between the warring neighbours with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj thanking the Pakistani establishment and judiciary.
Accompanied by Indian High Commission officials and escorted by Pakistani police personnel, she crossed into India through the Wagah border crossing near Amritsar.
“It’s easy to go to Pakistan, but tough to return. Pakistan is a well of death. Even those who go there after arrange marriages are crying,” a tearful Uzma told reporters in New Delhi.
“They (in-laws) have tortured me in many ways, threatened to kidnap my daughter. So I agreed to marry him to save my daughter. He used to beat me up. Because of my daughter I signed it, they scared me so much that I signed,” Uzma said at the joint press conference with Swaraj.
Uzma had petitioned the court on May 12 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.
Uzma, who hails from Delhi, had taken refuge at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.