2023-07-14 08:42:09
Sachin is a Hindu, Seema was a Muslim. He is from India; she, from Pakistan. But the love between them it became so strong who smuggled across the border to be together and overcome national rivalries and fear of religious reprisals.
In the midst of the 2020 pandemic, a video game connected Sachin Meenaa 22-year-old single Indian who works as a clerk in a store, with Seema Haider, a 27-year-old Pakistani married and mother of four children.
“We became friends, our friendship turned into love and our conversations became longer and longer, morning and night, until finally we decided to meet,” explains Seema from the narrow courtyard of Sachin’s family home, where he lives now.
In May, Seema left her husband and she smuggled her four children into India through Nepal, which is why the couple was arrested and released last month.
Since then, Seema explains that she married Sachin and took his last name.
“I have converted to Hinduism,” she explains, sitting next to her husband in the village of Rabupura, about 55 kilometers from New Delhi. “I would rather die than return or leave Sachin”.
However, nothing is easy. The Indian police say it is impossible for Seema to stay there long-term.
“I am asking the Indian Government to give me citizenship,” pleads Seema, with a red scarf covering her hair and the four children playing around her.
The love of this couple contrasts with the sour historical relationship between their two countries.
India and Pakistan, two nuclear powershave fought three wars since partition back to independence from the British Empire in 1947.
Diplomatic, cultural, business or sports relations are very limited.
“Living and dying together”
Apostasy, that is denying or abjuring the faith, is punishable by death according to some interpretations of Islam.
Seema claims that she has already received some threats on the internet and insists that the couple want to “live and die together”.
This week they participated in a televised debate in India where Seema proclaimed her “imperishable love” for Sachin and promised that she would only return to Pakistan “as a dead woman”.
Seema was first attracted to Sachin’s skills in the fighting video game PUBG.
Three years later, the couple stayed in Nepal in person this March. After this first meeting, she was already sure that she wanted to leave her “violent” husband, an accusation that the interested party denies.
It took the couple months to plan with the help of YouTube videos how to enter India through Nepal. And in May he succeeded.
“It was very difficult to travel from Pakistan to India,” he said. «I think with the love of God we were destined to meet.”
Sachin’s family only learned of her existence when the man rented a nearby apartment with her. “There was a bit of resistance, although my father and everyone accepted us. They were happy for us”, explains Sachin.
But the Indian police discovered them when they tried to get married in a courthouse local.
“He left”
Seema’s abandoned husband, Ghulam Haider, quit his job as a laborer and rickshaw driver to earn more money for his family in Saudi Arabia.
Now he wants to get his family back. «I earnestly request the Indian and Pakistani authorities to return my wife and children to me», he told AFP by phone from Saudi Arabia.
Haider says that he and Seema, who come from different Baloch tribes, also have a heartbreaking love story.
Their families forbade them to marry, but they ran away to marry, a taboo subject in Pakistan which can lead to so-called ‘honour crimes’.
A council of elders later settled the matter with a fine of one million rupees (about $3,640) per a Haider.
“I’m far from home, from my family, it’s very distressing for me because we got married for love.”
In India, the couple formed by Seema and Sachin received a popular welcome. People from nearby villages have been visiting them ever since their arrest hit the media.
“We take selfies,” says Rakesh Chand, a 37-year-old man who drove an hour to congratulate the couple.
“Sachin is very happy, even his family has accepted them, so the Government must make sure that they don’t force her to leave,” he points out.
In his old village of Dhani Bakhsh, Pakistan, few want to talk about the history openlyalthough many gossip about this one.
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“Forget about her. She’s gone and she’s an adult,” says Zafarullah Bugti, Haider’s cousin.
La Seema no he regrets it and describes the Sachin as “the love of his life”. “My children will receive all the love, care and attention here.”
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