Woman who fled Pakistan for India to marry PUBG buddy vows to soldier on: ‘I’d rather die than return’
- Sachin Meena and Seema Haider were arrested then bailed last week after the Pakistani national smuggled herself into India via Nepal in May
- Seema has since married Sachin and insisted she will dedicate herself to her family, but her estranged husband appealed to officials to repatriate his wife
Sachin Meena, 22, an unmarried Indian shopkeeping assistant and a Hindu, connected with 27-year-old Seema Haider, a married Pakistani mother of four and a Muslim, playing the online shooting game PUBG during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
“We became friends and our friendship turned to love and our chats became longer – every morning and night – before we finally decided to meet,” said Seema, speaking from the cramped courtyard of Sachin’s two-room family home, where she now lives.
Seema, who left Pakistan and her husband with her four children by smuggling herself into India via Nepal in May – for which the couple were arrested then bailed out last week – said she has since married Sachin and taken his name.
“I converted to Hinduism,” she said, sitting next to Sachin in the village of Rabupura, about 55km (35 miles) from New Delhi.
“I’d rather die than return or leave Sachin”.
