Jatha member remarries in Pak, kin want her back

Chandigarh/Hoshiarpur, April 19 

The father-in-law of a 32-year-old woman, Kiran Bala, who has reportedly remarried in Lahore, on Thursday sought the Centre’s intervention for her safe return home.

Hoshiarpur-based Bala’s father-in-law Tarsem Singh, 70, feared she might have fallen into the hands of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and forced to convert to Islam and remarry there.

She had gone to Pakistan for Baisakhi celebrations as part of a Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee  jatha. “I dropped Kiran Bala in Amritsar on April 10. She was happy,” said Tarsem.

The SGPC has sought a report on how she got separated from the jatha. SGPC members from Hoshiarpur Jung Bahadar Singh Rai and Bibi Ranjit Kaur Mahilpur said each of them could recommend seven persons for the Pakistan visit, and “none had recommended Bala”. 

Tarsem, a resident of Garhshankar, said his daughter-in-law called him up on April 16 and told him that she had got married in Pakistan. “I thought she was joking… I was shocked after I got calls  that she had gone missing.”

Bala’s husband Narinder Singh had died in a road accident in 2013. She has three children — a 12-year-old daughter and two sons aged eight and six years.

Bala has reportedly written to the Pakistan Foreign Office that her visa be extended as she had married  Mohammad Azam of Lahore on April 16. She has also changed her name to Amna Bibi. Her visa expires on April 21. 

Police said Bala had got in touch with Azam through Facebook. — TNS/PTI