Indian national forced to marry Pakistani man at gunpoint returns to India

Islamabad/Wagah Border: An Indian woman, who said she was forced to marry a Pakistani man at gun point, today returned to India via the Wagah Broder, days after she took refuge at the Indian High Commisssion in Islamabad.

Uzma Ahmad, who is in her early 20s and hails from New Delhi, was allowed by the Islamabad High Court on Wednesday to return home after she filed a plea with the court.

Uzma was provided security by the Pakistani police till the Wagah Border crossing, and she touched the ground after crossing into the Indian territory.

On Wednesday, the High Court had allowed Uzma to return home and even handed over her original immigration papers, which her husband Tahir Ali had submitted to the court on Tuesday.

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 hemoglobin production.

Ali had petitioned the court, requesting that he be allowed to meet his wife. A single bench of Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani heard both the petitions and after hearing their
arguments, he allowed Uzma to return to India.

Uzma arrived in Pakistan on May 1 and travelled to the remote Buner district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province where she was married to Ali on May 3. She has said she was forced to marry him at gunpoint.

Later she came to Islamabad and took refuge in the Indian High Commission.

According to the law in Pakistan, her lawyer can continue to represent her in the case she has filed in the High Court and she can return to pursue the case.