A woman from Punjab's Hoshiarpur district who went to Pakistan on a pilgrimage has reportedly embraced Islam and married a Lahore-based Pakistani man, according to her family which alleged that she may have fallen into the hands of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and forced to convert and remarry.
The family of the woman, Kiran Bala, 31, said on Thursday that they had no official communication from any quarter about her well-being and current status. The family is based in a village in Garhshankar sub-division of Punjab's Hoshiarpur district, around 110 km from here.
The woman left for Pakistan on the pilgrimage as part of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) delegation on April 12 and reportedly went missing on April 16. She went to Pakistan on her Indian passport with a Pakistani visa valid till April 21.
Reports reaching her family in Punjab indicated that the woman embraced Islam at Darul-Aloom Jamia Naeemia in Lahore on April 16 and later had a "nikah" (marriage) with Pakistani national Muhammed Azam.
Her elderly father-in-law, Tarsem Singh, alleged that his daughter-in-law could have fallen into the hands of the ISI and may have been forced to convert and remarry there.
Singh, who works as a priest in a Sikh temple in Hoshiarpur, said, "We noticed her speaking to people on the phone for long and when asked, she would say that she was talking to a relative. I doubt that she was honey-trapped by the ISI for spying."
However, what is curious is that in her application for extension of the Pakistan visa, her name was mentioned as Amna Bibi while the signature was done as Amina.
She applied for extension of the visa, citing "threats of assassination" to her life in India, before Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Ministry, according to a report in the Pakistani media.
Another report in the News daily also posted pictures of the woman and her visa extension application on its website.
"I had dropped my daughter-in-law with SGPC officials in Amritsar on April 10 for the pilgrimage in Pakistan. The 'jatha' is expected to return on April 21.
"I cannot believe what has happened. No one has contacted us officially from the SGPC and the Foreign Ministry. I want my daughter-in-law to be returned safely," Singh, a Sikh religious preacher in his village, told the media.
He alleged that Kiran Bala could be in touch with the Pakistani man (whom she reportedly married) through Facebook as she was using social media frequently on her mobile phone in the past one month.
Indian woman #kiran_Bala interview, #kiran_bala accepted Islam and marriage a Pakistani man. pic.twitter.com/pSrZmXEcOH
— Asif Mehmood (@asiffraz) April 19, 2018
Around 1,700 Indian pilgrims had gone to Pakistan to visit Sikh shrines, including Panja Sahib Gurdwara near Lahore and Nankana Sahib -- the birth place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, on the occasion of Baisakhi on April 13.
Kiran Bala, 31, a widow, is a mother of three and was living with her children and in-laws at their village. Her husband passed away in 2013. She used to work at a Himachal biscuit factory but quit later to run odd jobs.
"After leaving her job, she became a mobile phone addict. The children told me that Kiran was active on social media. I fear that she might be involved in anti-national activities too," Tarsem Singh said.
The visit of the Indian pilgrims to Pakistan has been mired in controversies in the past one week with Pakistani agencies and officials denying permission to Indian Embassy officials there to meet the visiting delegation members.
#Indian Sikh pilgrim Kiran Bala currently visiting #Pakistan, accepts Islam, marries Muslim boy in Pakistan https://t.co/wOoV0WdXQ1
— Ali Hussain (@aly_husein) April 18, 2018
India strongly took up the matter with Pakistan earlier this week. Posters of Khalistan, a separate Sikh homeland, were also put up at the places where the Indian delegation was visiting.
Meanwhile, the SGPC is set to conduct a probe into how she managed to leave India and then the jatha, but also blamed the central spy agencies.
Its spokesperson Diljit Singh Bedi said in Amritsar that SGPC collects passports and other documents of those wanting to get a pilgrimage visa “upon written recommendation of the elected SGPC member concerned”, and the Centre and state government “verify the antecedents through their own security and intelligence agencies”.
However, the two SGPC members from Garhshankar segment denied having recommended her name.
“As the matter is very serious, it will be put up at the SGPC executive meeting on Friday at Takht Sri Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo (Bathinda), for discussion. A probe is expected to be ordered during this meeting. Besides, once the jatha returns on Saturday, its leader Gurmeet Singh Booh, who is an executive member of SGPC, will give a report,” Bedi said.
He added that the passports of the pilgrims are taken by Pakistan’s Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) too. “The pilgrims remain under surveillance and cannot violate the security cover. We don’t know how she did that.” He added, “Indian agencies cannot be spared while fixing responsibility for this. The Union government should take immediate action and bring truth to the fore.”
He termed the woman’s act “sad and unfortunate”: “This has potential of leaving a bad impression on other pilgrims. In the history of pilgrimage to Pakistan, it is the first incident of its kind and a blot.” Asked if SGPC plans measures to prevent such an incident in future, he said, “If somebody goes with ill intention, what can the SGPC do?”
Kiran Bala's case, however, is not the first.
In 2015, Sunil Singh, a resident of Sandhawala village in Faridkot district, had vanished in Nankana Sahib along with his wife and two children. Investigations revealed that Sunil was a Pakistani spy who forged Indian documents with the help of locals.
It is alleged that the ISI has been using men and women to honey trap Punjabi youth. Police had arrested a 57-year-old Pakistan spy, Ahsan Ul Haq, in Jalandhar who had married a Sikh woman and also bought a plot near the Punjab town using fake documents.
The ISI is also using social media to radicalise unemployed youth by luring them into spying, police said.
Punjab police and other intelligence agencies are now scanning Kiran's Facebook account and call details to probe the allegations against her.
