JAMMU: A 22-year-old woman, who had crossed over to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) along with her 18-month-old daughter from a frontier village in J&K’s Poonch district along the Line of Control (LoC) in early Feb, was repatriated by Pakistan army on Tuesday evening in a gesture of goodwill.
“Shabnam Bi and her daughter Laiba Fatima were handed over to the Indian Army by their Pakistan counterparts during a flag meeting at Chakan Da Bagh crossing point. They were received by Poonch deputy commissioner Yasin M Choudhary,” said an official.
While there is no clarity yet on where the mother-daughter duo had been for over a month, sources said they may have put up with Shabnam’s relatives who live on the other side of the border.
“Shabnam Bi and her daughter Laiba Fatima were handed over to the Indian Army by their Pakistan counterparts during a flag meeting at Chakan Da Bagh crossing point. They were received by Poonch deputy commissioner Yasin M Choudhary,” said an official.
While there is no clarity yet on where the mother-daughter duo had been for over a month, sources said they may have put up with Shabnam’s relatives who live on the other side of the border.
On Feb 3, Shabnam’s husband Ghulam Rubani of Salotri village located along the LoC, approached cops claiming that his wife had left the house with their daughter after an argument and didn’t return.
Upon inquiring with Shabnam’s parents, her husband found that she had not gone there. “It was then suspected that the woman had crossed over to the other side of the border as she has relatives across the LoC,” said an official.
Police registered a missing FIR following which Poonch district administration took up the matter with PoK authorities via Indian Army.
