New Delhi: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj profusely thanked the Pakistan government and judiciary for their role in enabling Uzma Ahmed, an Indian national, to return to India on Thursday.
“Pakistan’s foreign ministry and home ministry helped us,” Ms Swaraj said. “Uzma — Welcome home India’s daughter. I am sorry for all that you have gone through,” Ms Swaraj tweeted hours after Ms Ahmed, in an emotional gesture, bent down and touched Indian soil after crossing the Wagah border in Amritsar.
Still shaken from her experience, she described Pakistan as a “well of death” and narrated how she was lured to Pakistan by a Pakistani national, Tahir Ali — whom she had initially met in Malaysia — and was then forced to marry him by signing the Nikahnama (marriage certificate). She accused him of administering sleeping pills, without her consent.
Leave alone women, even men not safe in Pakistan: Uzma
Ms Swaraj also praised Ms Ahmed’s counsel, barrister Shahnawaz Noon, and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of the Islamabad high court for her return.
Ms Swaraj, accompanied by Ms Ahmed and Indian deputy high commissioner to Pakistan J.P. Singh, told the media, “I heaved a sigh of relief as soon as she crossed the Wagah border.”
Ms Ahmed profusely thanked Ms Swaraj and Mr Singh for their support. Ms Swaraj “thanked” Ms Ahmed for “trusting” the Indian diplomatic mission and told reporters that she had also suffered beatings.
Ms Ahmed said that while some Indian Muslims may think favourably of Pakistan as a “nice” place, women are not safe there. “Even men there are not safe, what to talk of women,” she said, fighting tears.
Ms Ahmed is reportedly in her early 20s and hails from New Delhi. She described herself as an orphan while thanking her uncle and aunt. She has a daughter, Falak. She expressed her wish to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to personally thank him for the Indian government’s efforts.
Ms Swaraj said that Ms Ahmed’s counsel, Shahnawaz Noon, had treated her as his child, and Judge Kayani had dealt with the case on humanitarian grounds and not through the prism of India-Pakistan relations.
She pointed out that Tahir had exhorted the judge to treat the case as one of Pakistan’s prestige, but the judge had maintained that it had nothing to do with Indo-Pak ties.
Ms Swaraj’s words of praise for the Pakistani civilian government raised some eyebrows, coming as they did at a time when ties between India and Pakistan are strained over LoC incursions and the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. But they also made clear that while India would be firm and respond in kind to any move to foment trouble, New Delhi will generously appreciate Pakistan’s genuine efforts to help, especially in humanitarian matters.
