ISLAMABAD: A 20-year-old Indian woman, who approached the Indian High Commission in Pakistan with a request to repatriate her, on Sunday alleged that she was forced to marry a Pakistani citizen on gunpoint, marking a new turn in the case.Uzma filed a plea with an Islamabad court against her husband Tahir Ali alleging that she was being harassed and intimidated by him. She also recorded her statement before a magistrate.

Alleging that she was forced to marry Ali on gunpoint, she said: “My immigration documents were snatched”, Geo News reported.

Uzma said she does not want to leave the Indian High Commission premises till she could safely travel back to India.

According to reports, Uzma’s husband met her in the High Commission this morning but he was not present in the court.

The Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi said that the immigration documents state that Uzma obtained the visa under the visit category.

Pakistani authorities have said that the Indian citizen did not share her plans to marry in Pakistan when she applied for the visa and expressed her intent to visit her relatives in Pakistan.

Uzma last week approached the Indian High Commission here with a request to repatriate her to India. But her husband, Ali, alleged that his wife had been detained by the mission.

Pakistan foreign office spokesman Nafees Zakaria yesterday said in a statement that “the Indian High Commission informed the ministry of foreign affairs that an Indian national, Ms Uzma, 20, had approached them with the request to be repatriated to India.”

Zakaria said that according to the Indian High Commission, she claimed to have married Ali and alleged that she later came to know that he was already married and has four children.

Government sources in New Delhi said the Indian woman has sought the help of the Indian mission in Islamabad on May 5.

The High Commission is providing necessary consular assistance to her and is in touch with the Pakistan Foreign Office on the matter and the girl’s family in India, said the sources.

Uzma and Ali reportedly met in Malaysia and fell in love after which she travelled to Pakistan on May 1 via the Wagah border. Their ‘nikah’ was solemnised on May 3.

But the situation changed when they visited the Indian High Commission on Friday. Uzma went inside the building of the mission and did not return, according to her husband.

Ali has filed a case with local police that she was detained against her will.

In the Dawn, we are having the following story.

Twenty-year-old Indian national Uzma met Tahir Ali, a resident of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the latter was working as a taxi driver in Malaysia eight months ago. The two were married in early May. A few days after their marriage, they had approached the Indian High Commission — reportedly to secure Indian visas — after which Uzma had ‘gone missing’.

An embassy official said that Uzma had actually “sought refuge” at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. According to the Indian High Commission, she claimed to have married Ali and alleged that she later came to know he was already married and had four children.

She reportedly sought legal help from the Indian High Commission to be repatriated to India.

The Indian High Commission then arranged an attorney for Uzma and provided her with transportation and security to appear before the court for today’s hearing.

In court today, Uzma alleged that Ali had forced her to enter a Nikkah contract at gunpoint and subsequently subjected her to physical and sexual abuse. He also confiscated her documents, she claimed.

She maintained in court that she was not under any sort of pressure while recording her statement.

Judicial Magistrate Haider Ali Shah ordered respondents Tahir Ali, the cleric who solemnised the marriage, as well as other witnesses to the marriage to submit a reply.

Shah fixed the next court hearing for July 11.

‘I don’t know why she is lying’

Speaking to the media, Uzma’s husband, Tahir Ali, accused his wife of lying, saying she knew he was married with four children.

“She has been in the Indian embassy since May 5. I don’t know how her mental state is now and why she is lying,” he added, claiming Uzma had been previously married.

“I have messages to prove we both were aware of each others’ marital status,” Ali claimed.

The events leading up to Uzma’s disappearance

Uzma, an Indian national, met Tahir Ali, a resident of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the latter was working as a taxi driver in Malaysia eight months ago, according to a request for help lodged at Islamabad’s Secretariat Police Station by Ali.

The two contracted a court marriage on May 3 in Buner, two days after Uzma arrived in Pakistan via the Wagah border.

After the couple tied the knot, Uzma called her brother in New Delhi to relay the news to him. Her brother asked her to visit India on her honeymoon and told her she could find a man named Adnan at the Indian embassy who would be able to sort out their visas for the trip, Ali alleged.

“At the Indian embassy window, she asked about Adnan. A while later, a man came out and took her inside through gate number six. I waited and waited, and then at 7pm I asked at the embassy gate if my wife was inside. They told me no one was inside,” Ali claimed.

He had added that he then returned to the main gate on a shuttle bus, and noted that none of the three phones surrendered to the embassy by the couple at the time of entrance were returned to him.

Who is right and who is wrong it certainly raises a question.