Bengaluru, May 26 (Deccan Chronicle): City police investigating what they believed was a car theft have stumbled on a love story that not only blew the Pakistani woman's cover, but also homed in on how Pakistanis — even without proper papers — can walk through India's porous borders and make their home here.
In this case, neither Sameera, nor her cousin and his paramour, who were all smuggled into the country by the besotted Gulf-based Indian from Kerala, were spies or terrorists. Just illegals. Just three Pakistanis, who landed in the police net - the fallout of a love story that blossomed between Mohammed Shihab, 26, who hails from Kerala, and a Pakistani woman Sameera alias Nazma, 25, who met in Doha, the Qatar capital - when the desperate Shihab brought them to Bengaluru illegally.
The CCB police, who picked up Shihab, under the mistaken impression that he was a car thief, based on a tip off, were shocked when they raided his home and found three Pakistanis, including Shihab's Pakistani wife's cousin Khasif Shamshuddin, 31, and his wife Kiron Ghulam Ali, 25.
Police said Shihab, working as an office boy in Qatar since 2012 fell in love with Karachi-born Nazma, who was a domestic help. Her parents were against their relationship but they got married, police said.
Nazma’s elder brothers, who worked as cab drivers there, learnt about the wedding and immediately sent her back to Karachi. The family members reportedly constantly harassed and ill-treated her. She was pregnant by then and they also allegedly forced her to undergo an abortion.
“Unable to bear the harassment, Nazma, with the help of her cousin, Shamshuddin, managed to contact Shihab over the phone. She narrated her ordeal to him and he asked her to come to Qatar and he would take her to India. She explained to him that she could not come alone and reveals that her cousin Shamshuddin and relative Kiron were in love and their relationship was also being opposed by members of the family. Shihab then suggested to her that she should bring them also and he would manage somehow to get them to India. Nazma convinced her cousin and relative and the trio left for Qatar. Later, the four travelled to Kathmandu in Nepal. The three Pakistanis used Pakistan passport to reach there. From there, they literally walked across the Nepal-Indian border and reached Bihar and from there, came to Bengaluru by train,” an official said.
“They had come to the city about nine months ago and as Shihab was working in Bengaluru in 2008 and was staying in Kumaraswamy Layout, he decided to hunt for a house in the same locality. As he knew Kannada, he approached a broker and told him that he was earlier working as an electrician in Dubai and was running his own business now. They found a house in Kumaraswamy Layout 91st cross for Rs 10,500 rent. As the owner insisted that they have to provide Aadhar card, Shihab paid Rs 100 and got fake Aadhar cards on fake names. We are investigating,” the official added.
How did they get caught?
For the last few days, Shihab was using a car bearing Tamil Nadu registration number. A police informant took note of it and found that the residents were behaving suspiciously by not coming out of house for days together and not talking to neighbours. As Shihab used a car bearing a number plate of another state, the informant thought it could be a stolen vehicle and alerted the CCB police. “Based on suspicion that he could be a car thief, Shihab was picked up for questioning when he spilled the beans. He said he was not a thief and the car belonged to a friend,” the official said.