NEW DELHI: Cross-border love has been immortalised in some Indian movies, but has failed to impress Indian police. Ill-fated Seema Ghulam Haider became the latest woman from Pakistan to face deportation from India after falling in love with an Indian man and crossing the border illegally with her four children, reports said on Monday.

In February, Ikra Jivani was similarly deported after the police refused to heed her pleas to be allowed to marry her Indian host. Both women used the Nepal route to enter India, probably leaning on easy travel allowed between the two countries.

Seema met Sachin (one name given), a man from Greater Noida near Delhi, on gaming app PUBG Mobile. They fell in love, India Today said, and Seema illegally entered India through Nepal. The mother and her children reached Greater Noida to live with Sachin.

Seema and Sachin started chatting on an online gaming app. After Seema reached India, they started living together in a rented apartment in Greater Noida’s Rabupura area.

Soon, local police received information that a Pakistani woman was living in Greater Noida illegally. Sachin reportedly learnt that the police may have got wind of Seema’s presence, and he fled with her and the children.

Brijesh (one name), the owner of the apartment where the couple lived, told police that they had rented the house in May. They claimed to have had a court marriage.

“It did not seem like the woman was from Pakistan. She wore salwar suit and sarees,” the landlord told the police. Sachin and Seema were later arrested, and further investigation is on, reports said.

In February, Bengaluru police arrested the 19-year-old Ikra Jivani but said she had no suspicious or criminal background. She had crossed over only to marry her online friend Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Late January, she was arrested along with her husband by the Bellandur police. Ikra, a resident of Hyderabad in Pakistan, got introduced to Yadav through online game Ludo. They reportedly fell in love and decided to get married.

Ikra traveled to Kathmandu without informing her parents. She then sneaked into India through the Birgunj border in Bihar.

The two reached Bengaluru on September 28, 2022 and settled in a rented house in Junnasandra near Sarjapur Road. Yadav had got her Aadhaar card done in the name of ‘Rava Yadav’ and applied for a passport.

The central investigating agencies tracked her parents in Pakistan and informed the local police. The police team had arrested Ikra and Mulayam Singh Yadav. She was sent home to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah border.

Police probe showed that Ikra and Mulayam did not have a criminal background.

The two were in an online relationship for four years, before the girl decided to cross over and live with him. Ikra had refused to go back and pleaded with the authorities not to deport her. The young woman claimed that since she had married an Indian, she should be allowed to stay back with him.

However, the authorities reportedly approached the Pakistan government, and the deportation process took about two months.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2023