‘Mom had been using app to chat with 4 Pakistanis for 2 months’

Sanjiv Bakshi

Garhshankar (Hoshiarpur), April 19

“Mom had been chatting with someone in Pakistan for around two months. Calls from Pakistan often came and she kept talking on phone for hours from behind closed doors. She had been using a social media app to converse with four people in Pakistan, which included a woman. Now if she has gone and abandoned us, we still know that we will be looked after well. Our grandparents will now be our parents,” said 12-year-old daughter of Kiran Bala of Garhshankar.

She had just returned from her school on Thursday afternoon when she got to know that her mother had married a Pakistani during her ongoing tour to Nankana Sahib with an SGPC jatha this Baisakhi.

The news of the widow Kiran Bala leaving the group of pilgrims and marrying a Pakistani there has not just shaken the family, but the Indian security agencies too.

Her father-in-law Tarsem Singh said that his son Narinder Singh had love marriage with Kiran Bala 13 years ago in 2005, while he was working in Delhi. Kiran's family did not agree with the marriage, but later it was solemnised as per the Sikh customs. After that, they had three children, a daughter (12), a son (8) and another son (6).

In 2015, Narinder Singh died in a road accident. Tarsem Singh further said that he did not let Kiran go because he wanted his three grandchildren to be looked after well even after his son’s death. He said he was now shocked, “I can still not imagine what she has done. She didn’t even bother as to what would happen to the family and her children without her. She had always been busy on her phone. I now suspect that she would have met someone from Pakistan on social media and would have taken such a step due to it,” said Tarsem.

He expressed fear that she could have become victim of some secret operation being run by any terrorist organisation, the consequences of which she probably does not realise now. He has urged the Indian Government to help them by bringing her back to India.

Local SGPC members Jung Bahadar Singh Rai, Bibi Ranjit Kaur Mahilpur and ex-MLA Surinder Singh Bhulewal Rathan denied knowing anything about her. They said although each member could recommend seven people for the Nankana Sahib pilgrimage, they did not recommend Kiran Bala’s name.

Police didn’t know anything

After the case came to fore, the police machinery and intelligence agencies are in a tizzy. It’s a challenge for them that a common woman had been in talks with persons in Pakistan for such a long time and no one even got to know about it. DSP Garhshankar Raj Kumar said the matter had just come to his notice and he would have to investigate the matter before saying anything about it.