Pakistani woman travels from Islamabad to Rajasthan in yet another cross-border love story

Islamabad: In yet another cross-border love story, a 25-year-old Pakistani woman crossed the international border last week to join a man from Rajasthan, whom she had befriended on a social media platform and later got married to.

It was after the failure of her first marriage in 2018 that Mehvish, who resides in Islamabad, befriended Rehman who hailed from Rajasthan's Bikaner district and was working as a transporter in Kuwait.

After several interactions on social media, the two fell in love with each other, leading to a marriage proposal on March 13, 2022 and "marriage via videoconference" three days later.

Later, both had a formal, in-person marriage ceremony during Mehvish's Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca in 2023.

Mehvish was previously married for 12 years to a Pakistani man from Lahore's Badami Bagh and had two sons, aged 12 and 7, from the long relationship. In 2018, both decided to part ways.

It was after her divorce that she befriended Rehman and later got married, first via video conference and then in-person during a visit to Saudi Arabia.

Sources say that Mehvish travelled from Islamabad to Lahore and crossed over into India through the Wagah border on July 25. She has obtained a 45-day tourist visa after a thorough document checking done by both Pakistani and the Indian authorities.

Mehvish was received by Rehman's family and travelled to Pithisar village in Rajasthan's Churu along with them.

The latest cross-border love story adds on to a list of such episodes where men and women from India and Pakistan have made long and eventful journeys to be with their lovers.

The most famous recent case was of Seema Haider who had left her husband and crossed the border into India to meet and marry her lover.

The case of an Indian woman named Anju, who came to Pakistan on a month-long visa to be with her lover Nasrullah, also grabbed the spotlight.

Another case was of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the 21-year-old Indian citizen, who had helped his 19-year-old Pakistani wife Iqra Jeewani to get a fake ID and enter India illegally. Both had befriended and fell in love while playing online Ludo. However, after being arrested by the Indian authorities, Iqra was deported to Pakistan while Mulayam was put behind bars and was charged with fraud.