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| August 4, 2002 | Sunday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 24,1423 |
Pakistani woman freed from Indian jail
NEW DELHI, Aug 3: A Pakistani woman, after seven-year captivity, was set free by a court in the Indian occupied Kashmir and her daughter was granted Indian citizenship, a news report says on Saturday.
Shehnaz, 32, resident of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, had been arrested by the Indian security forces after straying into Poonch District by accident seven years ago, The Indian Express reports.
A Jammu and Kashmir High Court bench on Friday directed the state government to set Shehnaz and her daughter Mobin free. The court also said that since Mobin was conceived and born in India, she would be granted Indian citizenship.
The paper adds that the Pakistani officials are not willing to allow Mobin into the country since she was born in India.
Shehnaz has refused to leave India without her daughter and the courts have allowed her to stay till both of them are accepted by the Pakistani authorities.
The court has also directed the government to compensate the mother and daughter. They will be lodged by the state government.
Shehnaz had apparently jumped into a river to commit suicide after a spat with her in-laws in Kashmir. However, she was washed up on the Indian side and arrested. She was raped in the Poonch jail in 1995, allegedly by the jail warden, who was later suspended.—dpa
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