LAHORE – Pakistani woman Sameera Abdul Rehman along with her four-year-old daughter Sana Fatima has returned to her home country after spending four years in a prison in Bangalore, India.
The Indian authorities handed over Sumaira and her daughter to Pakistani authorities at the Wagah border on Saturday.
Pakistani High Commission officials accompanied Sumaira from Bangalore to the Wagah border. It will take another four days for Sumaira Rehman to fulfill all the legal requirements and to complete immigration processes.
Irfan Siddique raised Sumaira Rehman’s issue in the Senate after the Ministry of Interior refused to issue a certificate of her nationality on the request of the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi.
“As far as I know, nobody from Sumaira’s family was present at the Wagah border to receive her,” Senator Siddique said.
Sumaira Rehman was settled in Qatar in 2017 when she married an Indian, Muhammad Shahab, against the consent of her parents. Shahab took her to India where the couple settled. After her visa expired, she was sent to jail along with her husband. Later, Indian authorities released her husband but kept her in jail, where she gave birth to a baby girl.
In 2018, the Pakistani High Commission was given consular access to Sumaira Rehman. The Pakistani High Commission, after meeting her, wrote a letter to the Interior Ministry in Islamabad to confirm the nationality of Sumaira Rehman.
Sumaira Rehman spent four years in Indian jail and paid one million in Indian rupees to the Indian government as a fine, which she collected from donations. Later, Indian authorities put her in a custodial centre.
An Indian human rights lawyer, Sohana Baswapatna, took up her case and struggled within the Indian legal system for her release from the custodial center.
