The first husband of Seema Haider, a Pakistani woman who illegally crossed over to India with her four children in 2023 to be with her lover, has hired an Indian lawyer to help him get his underage kids back, a top rights activist said in Karachi on Friday.
Seema Haider, who is from Jacobabad in Sindh province, in May last year took her children and left her home in Karachi to travel to India via Nepal.
She captured the headlines in July when Indian authorities found her living with Indian national (now her husband) Sachin Meena in the Greater Noida area in Uttar Pradesh.
She is said to be expecting a child with Mr Meena.
Ansar Burney, a top Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist, said that Ghulam Haider, Seema's Pakistani husband, had approached him for help in getting custody of his four children.
“After due process, we have hired an Indian lawyer, Ali Momin and have sent the power of attorney to start legal proceedings in Indian courts,” Mr Burney said.
Mr Burney also runs a trust under his name, which works for the recovery of missing and kidnapped children, and he has also represented Indian prisoners jailed in Pakistan.
Seema's story became viral because she said she fell in love with Sachin on PUBG - a mobile game -- and decided to go to him.
Her husband was working in Saudi Arabia when she ran away to India via the UAE and Nepal.
In an interview with BBC, Seema said that she had adopted Hinduism and refused to return to Pakistan. Seema claims her children have also converted to Hinduism.
Mr Burney said that Mr Ghulam had a strong case, and according to international laws, religious conversion of underage children is prohibited.
“This is not an open and shut case because even if she is settled there now, her children are Pakistani nationals and underage, the father has every right to them.” Mr Burney said Mr Ghulam wanted nothing to do with his wife but only wanted his children back in Pakistan.
In India, advocate AP Singh, the legal representative of Seema Haider and Sachin Meena, told PTI: "We are not aware of any such development. When we get to know of it officially, we will respond to it accordingly." The case of Seema and Meena is currently being investigated by the Uttar Pradesh Police's Anti-Terrorist Squad, which picked up the couple for interrogation in July 2023, a couple of weeks after the local Noida Police arrested them.
She had come along with her four children - all below the age of 7 years - in May and lived in the Rabupura area in a rented accommodation secretly.
Seema and Meena were arrested on July 4 last year, but a local court granted them bail on July 7.
They have been living together ever since even as the local police and the UP Anti-Terrorist Squad continue separate investigations into the case.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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