Woman seeking Pakistani citizenship refuses to visit India
By Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, July 18: Dr Hafsa Aman, an Indian woman seeking Pakistani citizenship, has turned down her mother's request to visit India, saying there is no guarantee of her safety there.
She told Dawn that she had converted to Islam and married a Pakistani, Aman Khan, after much contemplation. Mrs Aman said that her mother and other relatives had contacted her, asking her to visit India with husband.
"Who can give us guarantee that we won't be harmed there?" she asked, adding "for the time being we can't visit India." Her husband, Aman Khan, told Dawn that instead of requesting them to visit India her (Hafsa's) parents should come to Pakistan as people here are very loving and hospitable. "They won't face any threat here," he added.
According to Indian media reports, Mrs Vasantha Dayanandan, mother of Mrs Aman, has sought help of the Indian government for her return. She has made a representation to External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh to get her daughter back from Mardan where she has settled with her husband after marrying him last year.
Mrs Aman, whose previous name was Divya Dayanandan, belongs to Kayamkulam, a village in Alappuzha district of Kerala. She had met Aman Khan in Ukraine where they were studying medicine. She reached Karachi last year where she embraced Islam and tied the nuptial knot with Mr Khan on July 16, 2003.
While Pakistan's superior judiciary is to decide the fate of Mrs Aman, the couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary at their residence on Friday. They cut a cake in the presence of family members and friends.
Mr Khan told this reporter said that they were undergoing a period of uncertainty and wondering which way the case would be decided by the Peshawar High Court, where their writ petition seeking citizenship for Hafsa was pending.
About his mother-in-law's request for an India trip, he said he was not sure whether visiting India would be safe. He posed a question: "Can Natwar Singh give us guarantee of our safety in India and our safe return home?"
He added that there were many extremist Hindus in India and it would not be safe for the couple to visit there. Mr Khan said that they were expecting a child next month and his wife was not in a position to travel to India.
He requested human rights organizations, both national and international, to take up their case. "In case of rejection of our petition by the court we will prefer to settle in a third country as I cannot leave my wife," he added.
Dr Hafsa Aman said that she did not find it hard to settle here as people are very friendly and loving. She added that she loved her parents but now her life was in Pakistan and could not even think of leaving her family here.
According to reports, state minister for non-resident Keralites, M.M. Hassan, who visited Vasantha at her residence on last Friday, said that he had received a memorandum from Dayanandan seeking the return of her daughter.
A journalist working with daily Madhyamam, a leading Malayalam-language paper in Kerala, Abdul Rasheed, told Dawn on telephone from Kerala that Mrs Dayanandan stays alone at Kayamkulam, while her husband has been working in Saudi Arabia for the last ten years.
He quoted her as saying that she had come to know of her daughter's relationship with Aman Khan only three months ago, and even Hafsa's intimate friends were not aware of her embracing Islam and marrying Mr Khan.
Mrs Dayanandan told the Kerala-based newspaper: "I wish eagerly to see my daughter. I am ready to accept her at any stage. Starting a hospital in our home town was her dream and all of us supported her (in that ambition)."
