New Delhi : Pakistan is actively pursuing the case of Sumaira – a Pakistani woman languishing in an Indian prison for nearly five years – with India, the Pak Foreign Office said, Dawn reported.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi were taking all possible steps to secure early release and repatriation of Sumaira and her four-year-old daughter, Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Asim Iftikhar told Dawn.
He said the Foreign Office received the confirmation of her nationality from the Interior Ministry on Feb 17 and it was conveyed in writing to India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) the same day through Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi.
According to Pakistan’s High Commission spokesman in New Delhi Jamil Baitu, the Pakistani mission followed up with the Indian side on the morning of February 18. Later in the afternoon, Charge d’Affaires Aftab Hasan Khan, along with the Counsellor concerned, visited MEA authorities in person and asked them to deal with the matter not as a normal case but as an urgent matter of humanitarian concern.
According to reports, Sumaira, who used to live with her parents in Qatar, married Indian Muslim, Muhammad Shahab, who managed to take her to India without a visa. In 2017, she was arrested by the Indian police on the charges of entering the country illegally, Dawn reported.
–IANS