Pak official fails to meet Mahammada

Shimla: A Pakistan High Commission official, who was to visit here to meet the woman claiming to be a Pakistani national, failed to do so today even as police said that “it appears” she did not belong to the neighbouring country.

The Legal Advisor to Pakistan High Commission Abdul Rehman, who came here last night, could not meet the woman, Mahammada, as he immediately rushed to New Delhi early this morning after receiving the news of his son’s accident, who was stated to be in a critical condition, the Chairman of Umang Foundation, Ajay Srivastav, said.

Rehman had said that it would be “premature” to conclude that the 42-year-old Mahammada was “not” a Pakistani

He also said that he would comment anything in this regard only after meeting and talking to the woman.

However, the police which made preliminary enquiries into the matter said that “it appears that the woman is not a Pakistani, but her antecedents and identity are yet to be verified.”

The woman has been in the Nari Sewa Sadan shelter home at Himachal’s Mashobra town in Shimla district since August 10.

Rehman had said that after news reports regarding a Pakistani women lodged in a destitute home in Himachal, the Pakistan High Commission had deputed him to meet and talk to the woman and get some clue about her native place.

State Women and Child Welfare Minister Shandil also said that preliminary enquiry suggests that “she is not a Pakistani as in her statement to the police. Mahammada had stated that she was given Rs 2,000 by her husband and she bought a railway ticket of Rs 250, which is the fair from Bihar and Gujarat to Kalka.”

According to Srivastav, the woman had said that she was from Gujarat in Pakistan and therefore her antecedent should be verified, and efforts should be made to unite her with her family members.

JR Katwal, Director, Woman and Child Welfare department said that Mahammada was mentally unstable and would be taken to Sundernagar for Psychiatric test on Tuesday.

“Whether she is an Indian or Pakistani, she is being taken care of at Sadan,” Katwal added.

PTI