CHANDIGARH: A cross-border love story that started on social media had an abrupt interruption after a 24-year-old woman was detained at the Attari border and handed over to the police on Saturday. The woman, hailing from Madhya Pradesh, had reached the border and was allegedly trying to cross into a Pakistan to meet her lover. She was arrested by Punjab Police, which handed her over to their Madhya Pradesh counteparts.
Police sources said Fiza Khan (24), a school teacher in a private school, went missing from Rewa district in Madhya Pradesh on June 14. She had some conversations with a Pakistani man named Dilshad on social media. She later fell in love with him and decided to marry him. She got her passport made from Rewa and got a Pakistan visa for 30 days, apparently at the behest of Dilshad. After she could not be traced, her family lodged a complaint with the police.
“The family members of the woman got a few calls from some Pakistani numbers. She had told her family about her love affair with the Pakistani man and that she wanted to marry him. After her family was not able to find her whereabouts, they lodged a complaint with Rewa Police, informing them about her wish to leave for Pakistan. A lookout circular was issued after that,’’ said a police official.
According to sources, the woman reached Attari border on Thursday, and was stopped by immigration authorities as a lookout notice had been issued by the Madhya Pradesh Police. She was handed over to the Punjab Police who kept her at Nari Niketan at Amritsar. She was produced in court on Saturday, and later handed over to a team of Madhya Pradesh Police along with her family members who came to take her back.
This is the latest in the series of such incidents this year. In January, a 25-year-old married woman from Dholpur district of Rajasthan reached Amritsar allegedly to cross over to Pakistan to meet her lover from the neighbouring country. She had become friends with a Pakistani man named Ali, while playing ludo online. She later left her in-laws and child without informing anyone. The police arrested her from Jallianwala Bagh area of Amritsar after she raised their suspicion, and was found carrying some jewellery and cash, but no valid documents. She too was arrested and sent back to her home town.