Islamabad, May 27 – In July 2013, Dr Pratima Sahoo, a resident of Orissa’s Balangir district, was spending her time on Facebook when she came across the profile of Pakistani national Muhammad Mansha. This was the beginning of a cross- border love story which culminated in their marriage in Pakistan’s Layyah district.
As it turned out, the first meeting at the social networking website changed their lives. ” We have been in touch for almost six months. It was then we fell in love and decided to get married,” Mansha told reporters. Layyah, a district in Pakistan’s Punjab province, is 460 km south of Islamabad.
Pratima, 26, reached Pakistan last week on a 90- day tourist visa. She was received warmly by Mansha, 32, and his family. On the next day, Pratima was converted to Islam by a cleric who gave her the new name – Maryam and the couple exchanged vows at a local mosque.
” I am extremely happy to find my love. I will apply for Pakistani citizenship at the earliest. I will love to stay with my husband and his parents,” Maryam was quoted as saying.
On Monday, Mansha’s family visited a local court to start legal work for obtaining Maryam’s Pakistani citizenship. The couple was informed that it would take some time to get the papers ready. ” We are getting the documents ready to be submitted to the Ministry of Interior for Maryam’s citizenship. Let us see what happens next,” Mansha told Mail Today over the phone.
It is the second such instance of a cross-border love story courtesy Facebook. In April, 2013, Indian engineer Hamid Ansari had arrived in Pakistan to meet his beloved whom he met on Facebook.
Ansari, however, went missing soon after he landed. Hamid is believed to be in the custody of Pakistani intelligence agencies on the charge of entering Pakistan without obtaining a valid visa.
-INDIA TODAY
