Pakistani woman crosses border from Islamabad to Rajasthan in yet another cross-border love story

Islamabad: In yet another cross-border love story, a 25-year-old Pakistani woman crossed the international border last week to meet a man from Rajasthan whom she had befriended on a social media platform and later married him.

After the failure of her first marriage in 2018, Mehwish, who lives in Islamabad, befriended Rehman, a resident of Bikaner district of Rajasthan, who was working as a transporter in Kuwait. After several interactions on social media, the two fell in love with each other, resulting in a marriage proposal on March 13, 2022, and a “marriage through video conferencing” three days later.

Later, the two formally got married in person during Mehwish’s Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca in 2023. Mehwish was previously married to a Pakistani man from Badami Bagh in Lahore for 12 years and had two sons aged 12 and 7 from this long relationship. In 2018, the couple decided to separate.

It was only after the divorce that she befriended Rehman and later married him, first through video conference and then in person during a visit to Saudi Arabia. Sources say Mehwish travelled from Islamabad to Lahore and entered India through the Wagah border on July 25. She has been granted a 45-day tourist visa after thorough document checks by Pakistani and Indian authorities.

Mehwish was received by Rehman’s family and accompanied them to Pithisar village in Churu, Rajasthan. The recent cross-border love story has added to the list of episodes in which men and women from India and Pakistan make long and eventful journeys to meet their lovers. The most talked about case recently was that of Seema Haider, who left her husband and crossed the border to India to meet and marry her lover. The case of an Indian woman named Anju also made headlines, who came to Pakistan on a one-month visa to live with her lover Nasrullah. Another case was of 21-year-old Indian national Mulayam Singh Yadav, who helped his 19-year-old Pakistani wife Iqra Jiwani obtain a fake identity card and enter India illegally. The two became friends while playing Ludo online and fell in love. However, Iqra was deported to Pakistan after being arrested by Indian authorities, while Mulayam was jailed and charged with fraud. (IANS)