Out of jail, Pakistani woman adopts UP lover’s Hindu life; husband asks Modi to send her back

Seema, 30, fell for Sachin, 25, while playing the online game, PUBG, in 2019. She played PUBG to keep herself occupied as her husband Ghulam was away at work in Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan's Seema Haider and India's Sachin Meena speak to media after they walked out of a jail, in Greater Noida, on 9 July 2023 | PTI

New Delhi: Like many India-Pakistan love stories, this too had landed in jail.

But a sympathetic Uttar Pradesh judge let Seema Ghulam Haider and Sachin Meena out last week, opening a chapter of hope for a life ahead in this country.

Seema, 30, fell for Noida’s Sachin, 25, while playing the online game, PUBG, in 2019. Her “abusive” husband Ghulam Haider was away at work in Saudi Arabia, the mother of four told India Today.

She played the game two to three hours a day to keep herself occupied after Ghulam – whom she married in 2014 in Sindh – moved countries. Sparks flew online and Seema and Sachin exchanged to regularly speak for the next three years.

Seema sold her land to raise money and finally made the journey to Nepal via Dubai with her children this May. Sachin met her in Pokhara. According to the couple’s lawyer, they got married and Seema crossed over to India to set up home in Greater Noida.

A complaint by a suspicious neighbour led to their arrest on 4 July – Seema for illegally crossing over and Sachin for helping her. Her four children were also kept in jail.

But four days later, Justice Nazim Akbar of the Jewar Civil Court gave them bail, and ordered Seema not to change her address during the tenure of the case and also asked the couple to regularly mark their presence in court.

Seema doesn’t want to go back to Pakistan, where she fears death by stoning. In an interview, she appealed to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to let her stay back in India. “I would rather die here than go back to Pakistan,” she said.

These days, Seema Haider wears a red “uttariya” with “Radhe Radhe” written on it. She no longer eats chicken biryani – even garlic – as Sachin’s family are vegetarians. She folds her hands when she greets everyone. She touches the feet of elders and prays to god. She has embraced Hinduism, she told India Today.

The children – three daughters and a son — have accepted Sachin as their father, she said, adding that many have come forward with money to support the couple’s new life.

Sachin too wants to be with Seema and the children as the couple now focuses on paperwork to make her move to India official.

There is, however, a twist in the tail. Seema’s husband Ghulam Haider has in a viral video made a plea to the Indian government to return her and the children to Pakistan.

He thanked the Indian media for “locating his wife and children” but also said Seema had been lured to India through PUBG.

Ghulam, who is still in Saudi Arabia, said in the video: “I humbly request the Modi government to assist in sending back my wife Seema, along with our children Farhan, Farwa, Farha, and Farheen to Pakistan. I am deeply concerned… Please help me. I am a very poor man. I was labouring to feed my child. I thank the Indian media for their support and please help the message reach the authorities.”