LAHORE, PAKISTAN, June 14, 2006: A Mumbai-based Hindu girl and a Pakistani boy who met each other over the Internet and recently married over the phone, are now facing trouble after Pakistan Interior Ministry officials said that there was no love between the couple, and in fact the marriage was a result of the ‘fever’ spread by Indian movies. “Muslims and Hindus were poles apart, and they could never live together,” Maqsood Akhtar, an Interior Ministry section officer, said and added that Mughal Emperor Akbar had made a ‘similar error’ by marrying Hindu women who disclosed his secrets. Khalid Mumtaz, the Pakistani boy and Asha Patel (who is now Ayesha after adopting Islam) met each other five years ago over the Internet. They exchanged messages through the Net and had long chats. Gradually they developed close friendship and decided to marry. Only last year, they saw each other for the first time through the gates erected at the Wagah Border, but were not allowed to speak. Allah Buksh Malik, the deputy secretary at the Interior Ministry, said that if the couple’s ‘nikah’ (marriage) had been registered in Pakistan, the Interior Ministry would have no objection to Ayesha entering Pakistan. Meanwhile, as fallout of the marriage, Ayesha’s brother-in-law had threatened to divorce her sister because of her marriage.
A daily summary of world news for Hindus and non-Hindus alike