Can’t say right now if Pakistani woman Seema Haider is a spy, says UP police

Seema (30) and her Indian partner Sachin Meena (22) were questioned by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad on Monday and Tuesday.
Sachin Meena and Seema Haider at their home in Rabupura village. (AFP)
Sachin Meena and Seema Haider at their home in Rabupura village. (AFP)

NOIDA: Uttar Pradesh special director general of police Prashant Kumar on Wednesday said it would not be appropriate to say if Pakistani citizen Seema Haider, who entered India illegally in May and is staying with her partner in Noida, is a spy “unless we have proof”.

He evaded a direct reply when asked if Seema would be deported, and also denied any security lapse along the porous Indo-Nepal border through which she entered India.

Seema (30) and her Indian partner Sachin Meena (22) were questioned by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad on Monday and Tuesday. They were arrested by the local police in Greater Noida on July 4 but granted bail by a court on July 7.

On the ATS questioning, the state police said two video cassettes, four mobile phones, five “authorised” Pakistani passports and one “unused passport” with an incomplete name and address, and an identity card have been received from Seema Haider.

Asked if Seema could be a Pakistan spy, the officer asserted nothing could be said so early. “The matter is related to two countries. Till we have enough proof, it would not be appropriate to say anything in this regard,” he said.

In her media interactions since her bail, Seema has been saying she entered India through the Nepal border and travelled to Noida in a bus to be with Sachin whom she met online while playing a PUBG game.

Asked whether the entry of a Pakistani citizen into India through the Nepal border was a security lapse, Kumar said, “This is not so. Our border (with Nepal) is porous. No passport is needed there. Nothing is written on anyone’s face.”

Kumar also said no team is being sent to Nepal to probe how she entered India.

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