Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 13: An Indian and Pakistani love-struck couple, who had met in a gaming chat-room, have vowed to live rest of their lives together despite heavy odds.
The man, the 22-year old Sachin Meena, a shop-keeping assistant, is an unmarried Hindu while his Pakistani partner Seema Haider is five years older than him, married to a Pakistani and mother of four children. But she has managed to sneak into India deserting her husband but brought with her all the four children.
They came in touch with each other while playing the online shooting game PUBG during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. “We became friends and our friendship turned to love and our chats became longer — every morning and night — before we finally decided to meet,” said Seema. They are now living together in a cramped courtyard of Sachin’s two-room family home after they were arrested for her “unauthorised entry” into India and later released.
Seema entered by smuggling herself into India via Nepal in May — for which the couple were arrested then bailed out last week — said she has since married Sachin and taken his name. “I converted to Hinduism,” she said, sitting next to Sachin in the village of Rabupura, about 55 kilometres from New Delhi. “I’d rather die than return or leave Sachin.”
Indian police insist that Seema’s long-term stay will be impossible. “I request the Indian government to grant me citizenship”, Seema pleaded. Apostasy is considered punishable by death in some interpretations of Islam. Seema said she had already received online threats and insisted the couple would “live and die together.”
Seema’s proclamation of “undying love” for Sachin and a promise to only return to Pakistan “as a dead woman” when they featured on a raucous Indian TV debate this week drew cheers from the crowds sitting around them. Seema said she had been first attracted by Sachin’s gaming skills.
Three years later, the couple met in person in March in Nepal. She became sure about leaving her “abusive” Pakistani husband — charges he denies — after the first meeting.
The couple said it took months of meticulous planning with help from YouTube videos on how to enter India via Nepal. In May, she succeeded. “It was very difficult to travel from Pakistan to India,” she said. “I believe that with God’s love, we were destined to meet.”
Sachin’s family only learned of her existence when he rented a nearby apartment with her. “There was some resistance, but my father and everyone accepted us. They are happy for us,” said Sachin. “I will do everything for them.” Indian police found out after they tried to get married at a local court.
But Seema’s estranged husband, Ghulam Haider, who is now working in Saudi Arabia to earn more money, wants his family back. “I earnestly appeal to Indian and Pakistani authorities to bring my wife and children back to me,” Ghulam Haider said on phone from Saudi Arabia.
Haider said his marriage with Seema was also a love affair. The couple, from different Baloch tribes, have a defiant love story of their own. Forbidden by their families from marrying, they ran away to get hitched — a taboo in Pakistan that can sometimes lead to so-called honour killings.
“Later, a jirga (council of elders) was summoned to settle the matter and a fine of one million rupees (around $3,640) was slapped on me,” he said. “I am far from my home, from my family, and it is very agonising for me because we married out of love.”
In India, the couple have received a popular welcome. Crowds from nearby villages have been visiting them since their arrest grabbed national headlines. “Sachin is very happy, even his family has accepted them, so the government must ensure that she isn’t forced to leave.”
But on the streets near her old home in Pakistan, Dhani Bakhsh village in eastern Karachi, the news has not been welcomed. While people know about Seema’s story, few are willing to talk about the incident openly — though they gossip in small groups on street corners.
“Let’s forget about her, as she has gone and she is an adult,” said Haider’s cousin Zafarullah Bugti, blaming PUBG for turning Seema into “a psycho.” Seema herself is unrepentant, calling Sachin the “love of her life” and insisting she will dedicate herself to her family. “My children will get all the love, care and attention here,” she said.