A Pakistani woman who married an Indian a decade ago following an intimacy that bloomed since their meeting on a social networking site has now complained of torture from her Kashmiri husband and his family—a charge the husband denies in the wake of an open letter by the ‘victim’.
Karachi-born Mehnaz Siddiqui, 34, had stumbled upon Abdullah Danish Sherwani of Srinagar ten years ago on the now-defunct Orkut. They “instantly” fell in love—and soon Sherwani, in 2009, visited Pakistan on a sponsored tour. The pair stayed together for a while even as Mehnaz had just completed LLB and post-graduation in international relations from the University of Karachi, while Sherwani had done his Master’s in mass communication and journalism from the University of Kashmir.
According to Mehnaz, Sherwani expressed his desire to marry her. Today, in times of a bitter relation between the two, there is dispute over even that point: the husband says it was Mehnaz who approached him on Orkut and subsequently revealed his love for him. Sherwani, now employed as a liaison officer in University of Kashmir and sporting a flowing beard amid his simultaneous role as a guide with the state Hajj Committee during the pilgrim season, argues to the contrary and says the woman would initially send him religious messages.
Whatever, the duo had tied the nuptial in June 2009—and moved to Kashmir. The marital relation had Mehnaz delivering three children, the youngest of whom died as an infant early this year owing to what the woman alleges was “mistreatment” from her husband. As exasperation apparently grew on her, Mehnaz recently wrote an open letter on Sunday, alleging torture by Sherwani and his household.
The June 10 letter, which has gone viral, accuses Sherwani of having an extra-material affair and wanting to marry another woman. What’s more, the husband tries to project her as a separatist so as to prompt the government to deport her from the Valley. Sherwani, on his part, did tweet to Rajnath Singh when the Union home minister visited the Valley last week, labelling Mehnaz as an anti-national and seeking an audience with the dignitary.
In fact, the University of Kashmir had instituted an inquiry after Sherwani had written to the National Investigative Agency and governor N.N. Vohra, who is the chancellor of the varsity, following his stating that Mehnaz was involved in “secessionist activities” on the campus. The probe result went against the husband. “We conducted an inquiry and submitted a report a week ago. We didn’t deal with charges of beating and torture, but we found the allegation of his wife being involved in the secessionist activities in the University as preposterous,” says a senior official of the university. The inquiry, headed by Prof Muhammad Ayub of the varsity’s law department, rejected Sherwani’s allegations and ruled out Mehnaz’s alleged involvement in separatism.
An unfazed Sherwani claims she has already divorced Mehnaz, who had “from day one kept me in the dark” about her family background. “She had told me that her father was into transport business, but in reality he was a taxi driver. I overlooked all these things and married her as she appeared to be very religious,” he says. Today, Sherwani claims that Mehnaz has filed three cases against him, including the one of domestic violence. “I am contesting all of them,” he says, adding that he spent much of last year on a pilgrimage of Umra and Hajj. “So how I had I get the time to beat her?”
Mehnaz, in her sensational letter that describes her life as worse than a maid’s, says Sherwani would beat her regularly and their two children were witness—even victims—of it. She further claims that Sherwani wrote letters to various Indian intelligence agencies and the MHA, “misleading them” into believing that the Pakistani national had connections with separatists. “Because of his claims, obtaining visa became difficult for me,” she adds. “I remained under the radar for long and the FRO did not let me fill the application for the visa...”
Just as Mehnaz had got a stay order from the J&K High Court against her deportation, she gave birth to her third baby. The infant was critically ill and remained hospitalised—till its death on January 25. “He (Sherwani) never took me to the gynaecologist for check-up,” she says, adding that a result of “torture and negligence” was that the baby was born with clubbed hand and feet, besides problems with the kidney, liver, intestine and lungs.
What’s more, On January 29, Sherwani—according to his wife—took the woman in his car and dropped her at a bridge on the Nageen Lake, asking her to commit suicide. “My wounds from the surgery had still not healed when he hit me hard from his car and left me in the middle of the road to die,” she adds. On February 1, Mehnaz filed an FIR at the local police station, and has since then been living separately.
The woman’s lawyer, Arshie Zuhar, tells Outlook that her husband falsely claims that she has divorced her last year while as they were living together until January this year. “Mehnaz’s husband has left no stone unturned to drive her away,” says the lawyer. “He would lock her in her room throughout the day, separating her from kids and was not providing her anything to eat.”
On his part, Sherwani concedes he wrote letters to intelligence and security agencies, but that was after a threat. “A pro-Pakistan person within the university told me that that if I divorced his wife, they would burn my parent’s house,” he claims. In his letters to the agencies, Sherwani had written that his wife would celebrate Pakistan Day, a point the university probe rejected.
Sherwani says his family was giving a personal undertaking for her visa for long. “How come she says from day one she was not acceptable to my family?” he says. Pointing to his “divorce”, he adds that Mehnaz is illegally staying in the Valley. “I wonder why the government is not bringing all these factors before the court,” he says, adding that Mehnaz’s father wants her back in Karachi, but she who is adamant to stay in India.
Their children, after all, are not Pakistanis. As Mehnaz says, “I came to India only because of Sherwani.”
