Arrested Pakistani woman pleads to be reunited with son

PRASHANT ACHARYA, TT, SILIGURI, NOVEMBER 24, 2023 :  “I cannot survive without my son, my blood pressure is becoming high every day, I request the court to let me stay with my son,” Sahistha Hanif said on Friday. 

A Pakistani national, she was arrested on November 15 along with her 12- year-old son Aryan at Panitanki along the Indo-Nepal border by SSB personnel. Sahistha was produced before the magistrate in Siliguri court and again sent to remand after Khoribari police pleaded for the same for further interrogation and investigation. 

Khoribari police took her into police remand for the second time on Friday for several questions to be asked regarding her visit to India. Sahistha replied to questions asked by newspersons and Khoribari police while she was being produced before the court and pleaded before the court for reunion with her son who is presently at a home in Jalpaiguri. 

She also said that she had visited India during 2008 with her husband from Dubai to meet her relatives. She also said that this time she had tried to enter India via the Nepal border to meet her relatives whom she had visited long ago. 

Sashastra Seema Bal’s (SSB) 41st Battalion personnel deployed on the border intercepted a mother and son entering the Indian border in a suspicious manner. The two arrested, Sahista Hanif (63) and Muhammad Aryan (12) are residents of Karachi in Pakistan. 

Sahistha was a resident of Assam and married to a Pakistani man while staying in Mumbai in 1980, later the couple moved to Saudi Arabia and a fight started between the two due to domestic problems