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

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.

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.