A Pakistani mother of four, who sneaked into India to live with a Hindu man whom she befriended through an online game platform, has been ostracised by her family and neighbours for daring to defy the societal norms here.
Seema Ghulam Haider and Sachin Meena got in touch while playing PUBG in 2019 and a dramatic love story unfolded between the two living more than 1,300 km apart, in countries not too friendly to each other.
While Seema was arrested on July 4 for illegally entering India without a visa via Nepal with her four children, all aged below seven years, Sachin was put behind bars for sheltering the illegal immigrants.
Seema, 30, and Sachin, 22, live in the Rabupura area of Greater Noida, near Delhi, where he runs a provision store, according to Uttar Pradesh Police.
While they were released from jail recently, the news from across the border is not so positive.Seema’s neighbours and a relative made it clear that they do not want her back in Pakistan.
The story of how this uneducated mother of four and the wife of a husband working abroad could have the courage in Pakistan’s largely conservative society to abandon everything and enter India illegally to be with a much younger man still fascinates everyone in her neighbourhood.
As soon as one reaches Seema’s house, one myth is broken that her husband Ghulam Haider who works in Saudi Arabia brought her the house for ₹1.2 million.
“No, she was a tenant with us for three years with her children. She lived alone with her children. Her father-in-law lives some distance away from here,” Nur Muhammad, the landlord’s son, explained.
Seema and Ghulam Haider had eloped 10 years back to Karachi and got married against the wishes of their parents.
