UP ATS questions Pak citizen Seema, Indian partner Sachin for over 9 hours on day 2
Noida(PTI): Pakistani citizen Seema Haider, who entered India illegally in May and is staying with her partner here, was picked up Tuesday by the Uttar Pradesh Police's Anti-Terrorist Squad and questioned for over nine hours, a second day of quizzing by the agency.
A local police official said Haider's Indian partner Sachin Meena, his father Netrapal Singh were also taken for questioning.
They were picked up from their residence in Rabupura area of Greater Noida around 8.30 am and brought to the ATS's unit office in Noida around 10 am, where the questioning continued till late evening, the official said.
Haider, Meena and Singh left the ATS office around 8.15 pm. There was no comment from any ATS official and it was not clear whether they would be questioned again.
The cross-border couple was first interrogated by the UP ATS on Monday at its office in Noida and was allowed to go home about 10.30 pm. Haider (30) and Meena (22) were first arrested by the local police in Greater Noida on July 4 but were granted bail by a court on July 7.
Explaining the questioning process of the UP ATS, an agency officer on Monday told PTI that the couple "may or may not be arrested" after the interrogation, depending on the outcome of the inquiry in the sensitive matter that pertains to national security.
The local police is separately investigating the case lodged under the Foreigners Act and is yet to file a chargesheet.
Seema entered India along with her four children in a bus from Nepal in May to live with Sachin. The couple, who claims to have gotten married in Nepal earlier this year, had first got in touch in 2019 over online game PUBG.
On July 4, Seema was arrested by local police for entering India illegally and Sachin was held for sheltering illegal immigrants. However, they both were granted bail by a local court on July 7 and have been living together along with her four children in a house in the Rabupura area.
During her interactions with the media, Seema said she does not wish to go back to Pakistan and wants to live with Sachin. She also claimed to have turned a Hindu.
Back home in Pakistan, the family and neighbours of Seema Haider told a PTI correspondent that they do not want her to return, while a gang of dacoits attacked a Hindu temple with rocket launchers in the Southern Sindh province on Sunday.
The assailants attacked the small temple and adjoining homes belonging to Hindus in the Kashmore area of the Sindh province, a police officer there said. There was no loss of life in the attack.
The attack came days after dacoits in the Kashmore and Ghotki riverine areas had threatened violence at Hindu places of worship and community members in retaliation to Seema and Sachin's PUBG love story.
Pakistan's intelligence agencies have informed the country's government that "love" is the "only" factor that led the mother of four to sneak into India to live with a Hindu man whom she befriended through an online game platform, a media report said on Monday.
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IAF to hold 2-day wargame along frontier with Pakistan: NOTAM issued
New Delhi, May 6 (PTI): The Indian Air Force will carry out a two-day mega military exercise along the border with Pakistan from Wednesday that will involve all the frontline fighter jets including Rafale, Su-30 and Jaguar aircraft, sources in the defence establishment said on Tuesday.
The exercise is taking place amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan over the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.
India's civil aviation authorities have already issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) for the major air exercise that will largely take place along the southern and western section of the Indo-Pakistan border.
India's frontline fighter jets including the Rafale, Su-30 MKI, MiG-29, Mirage-2000, Tejas and AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft are set to feature in the exercise, the sources said.
In the course of the exercise, the IAF will simulate enemy targets on ground and in the air with deadly precision, they said.
The militaries of both India and Pakistan are on a high alert following rising tensions between the two nations.
Soon after the Pahalgam terror attack, India, citing "cross-border linkages" to the strike, promised severe punishment to those involved in it.
In a high-level meeting with the top defence brass on April 29, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the armed forces have "complete operational freedom" to decide on the mode, targets and timing of India's response to the terror attack.
Air Chief Marshal A P Singh met Prime Minister Modi on Sunday and the Chief of Air Staff briefed him about the IAF's operational readiness.
On Saturday, Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi apprised the prime minister on the overall situation in the critical sea lanes in the Arabian Sea.
