A 30-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh was arrested by the Pakistani authorities after he illegally crossed the border to meet a woman he fell in love with and befriended on a social networking site. He was later arrested by Pakistan's Punjab Police in Mandi Bahauddin city.
The man has been identified as Badal Babu and is a resident of Nagla Khatkari village in Aligarh. According to Pakistani authorities, the man confessed to have entered the country without a valid visa or travel documents to meet the woman he had met on Facebook. He also confessed to have taken the step as he had developed a romantic relatioship with the woman and wanted to meet her in person, India Today reported.
Babu was apprehended on December 27 after he could not produce the required travel documentation. Pakistan has booked him under Sections 13 and 14 of Pakistan's Foreigners Act, 1946. He was later presented in court, where he was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. The court has scheduled him to appear again on January 10, 2025.
As per the initial investigation, the UP man confessed to have previously attempted to cross the India-Pakistan border twice. However, he had failed. This was his third attempt, but although he successfully crossed into Pakistan and reached Mandi Bahauddin, he ended up getting caught. The report also said that he was able to meet the woman he had befriended online.
The Pakistani authorities have initiated a probe to understand whether Babu's illegal entry into Pakistan was merely driven by his romantic relationship with the woman or if there were other motivations involved, India Today reported.
This is not the first time that a man from India has attempted to cross the Pakistan border to meet his partner. In another similar incident in July this year, another man from Uttar Pradesh attempted to cross the border in order to marry a woman from Pakistan, whom he had met online.
However, the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel foiled his bid and detained him at the Khokhar border outpost in Jammu and Kashmir. He was later handed over to the police after preliminary investigation.