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An India-Pakistan love story nears happy ending: The Hindustan Times
Chandigarh, Nov 10: When a Pakistani woman and her Indian fiance marry a few days after Eid this month, it will be a historic wedding.
Chandigarh, Nov 10: When a Pakistani woman and her Indian fiancé marry a few days after Eid this month, it will be a historic wedding.
For theirs will be the first cross border marriage after the attack on the Parliament in New Delhi December 2001.
Maqbook Ahmed of Qadian in Gurdaspur district of Punjab will finally get married to Tahira Hazur of Pakistan's Faisalabad city - most probably at Qadian.
Tahira was granted visa by the Indian High Commission in Pakistan and arrived by the Lahore-New Delhi bus last month.
A thrilled Tahira said: "Though it was a long and painful wait, I knew my dream would come true."
"I have appealed to the Indian authorities to grant visas to my parents and three brothers and five sisters but till date there has been no response."
An arts graduate from Islamia College in Faisalabad, the 20-year-old Ahmadiya Muslim was engaged to her first cousin Maqbool, a journalist with Hindi daily Amar Ujala, in March 2001.
They were to be married later that year after Christmas but their hopes were dashed following a December 2001 terrorist attack on the Parliament.
India also suspended air and road links with Pakistan.
As bilateral ties nose-dived, Ahmad gave up all hope -- almost.
He even went to England to meet Tahira's parents and told them that she could marry any man of her choice in Pakistan.
"But I never gave up hope and told my parents that I was willing to wait indefinitely to marry the man with whom I have been engaged," insisted Tahira.
After the thaw in relations between India and Pakistan this year and resumption of the bus services, the couple's hopes soared.
Said Maqbool, "I approached former prime minister IK Gujral, who recommended Tahira's case to the (Indian) government."
Tahira is the fist Pakistani girl to be granted a visa to marry an Indian after the attack on the Indian Parliament. She has been granted a single entry visa.
Maqbool said Tahira had to take the bus alone to New Delhi because passengers from Pakistan were not allowed to alight mid-way.
Maqbool's cousin went to New Delhi and brought Tahira to Qadian, where she now stays with her fiance's sister.
"We had earlier thought of getting married Friday (November 7) but this being the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast during the day, and we postponed the wedding to November 30," said Maqbool.
"Many of our relations from Pakistan, England, Germany and other countries have applied for visas to attend our marriage. We have also invited many non-Muslim friends."
He said because Tahira's parents would not be present, a local physician, Bashir Ahmad, whose wife too is a Pakistani, would act as her guardian to perform the Muslim ritual of sending off the newly married bride.
However, Tahira has not lost hope of her family attending her wedding -because she has immense faith in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"We appeal to the Indian government to grant them visas, and who knows it might come as an Eid gift to us from Vajpayee," she said.
For theirs will be the first cross border marriage after the attack on the Parliament in New Delhi December 2001.
Maqbook Ahmed of Qadian in Gurdaspur district of Punjab will finally get married to Tahira Hazur of Pakistan's Faisalabad city - most probably at Qadian.
Tahira was granted visa by the Indian High Commission in Pakistan and arrived by the Lahore-New Delhi bus last month.
A thrilled Tahira said: "Though it was a long and painful wait, I knew my dream would come true."
"I have appealed to the Indian authorities to grant visas to my parents and three brothers and five sisters but till date there has been no response."
An arts graduate from Islamia College in Faisalabad, the 20-year-old Ahmadiya Muslim was engaged to her first cousin Maqbool, a journalist with Hindi daily Amar Ujala, in March 2001.
They were to be married later that year after Christmas but their hopes were dashed following a December 2001 terrorist attack on the Parliament.
India also suspended air and road links with Pakistan.
As bilateral ties nose-dived, Ahmad gave up all hope -- almost.
He even went to England to meet Tahira's parents and told them that she could marry any man of her choice in Pakistan.
"But I never gave up hope and told my parents that I was willing to wait indefinitely to marry the man with whom I have been engaged," insisted Tahira.
After the thaw in relations between India and Pakistan this year and resumption of the bus services, the couple's hopes soared.
Said Maqbool, "I approached former prime minister IK Gujral, who recommended Tahira's case to the (Indian) government."
Tahira is the fist Pakistani girl to be granted a visa to marry an Indian after the attack on the Indian Parliament. She has been granted a single entry visa.
Maqbool said Tahira had to take the bus alone to New Delhi because passengers from Pakistan were not allowed to alight mid-way.
Maqbool's cousin went to New Delhi and brought Tahira to Qadian, where she now stays with her fiance's sister.
"We had earlier thought of getting married Friday (November 7) but this being the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast during the day, and we postponed the wedding to November 30," said Maqbool.
"Many of our relations from Pakistan, England, Germany and other countries have applied for visas to attend our marriage. We have also invited many non-Muslim friends."
He said because Tahira's parents would not be present, a local physician, Bashir Ahmad, whose wife too is a Pakistani, would act as her guardian to perform the Muslim ritual of sending off the newly married bride.
However, Tahira has not lost hope of her family attending her wedding -because she has immense faith in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"We appeal to the Indian government to grant them visas, and who knows it might come as an Eid gift to us from Vajpayee," she said.