Pakistan extends visa of Indian woman who crossed border to marry her Facebook friend

Last month, a real estate company gifted the couple a plot of land in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and presented them with a cheque

Peshawar: Pakistan has extended by one year the visa of a 34-year-old Indian mother of two children who travelled to a remote village in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to marry her Facebook friend after converting to Islam, her Pakistani husband said on Tuesday.

Anju – who now goes by the name of Fatima after converting to Islam – on July 25 married her 29-year-old friend Nasrullah, whose home is in the Upper Dir district in the province. They became friends on Facebook in 2019.

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On Tuesday, Nasrullah said that Anju’s visa, which was earlier extended for 2 months, has now been extended for a year after their marriage. Her original one-month visa was set to expire on August 20.

“The visa of my wife Anju has been extended for a year after the provision of related documents to the Interior Ministry,” said Nasrullah.

“All Pakistani institutions are cooperating with us,” he added.

Last month, a real estate company gifted the couple a plot of land in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and presented them with a cheque.

Anju, who was born in Kailor village in Uttar Pradesh and lived in the Alwar district of Rajasthan, travelled to Pakistan legally from India via the Wagah-Attari border. She was granted a 30-day visa, valid for Upper Dir only.

Anju is married to Arvind, who is in Rajasthan. They have a 15-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son.

Her story is similar to Seema Ghulam Haider, a 30-year-old Pakistani mother of four who sneaked into India to live with Sachin Meena, a 22-year-old Hindu man she got in touch with while playing PUBG in 2019.