Woman who went missing from Sikh jatha arrested in Pak, faces deportation

Amritsar: Sarabjit Kaur, a woman from Punjab's Kapurthala district, who travelled to Pakistan as part of a Sikh jatha last year and married a Pakistani national after converting to Islam, has reportedly been arrested by Pakistani authorities. According to Pakistani media reports on Sunday, she now faces deportation to India. Her Pakistani husband, Nasir Hussain, was also taken into custody.Ramesh Singh Arora, a Pakistan Punjab govt minister and member of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC), said a joint team from the Intelligence Bureau and local police apprehended the couple on Saturday in Pehre Wali village, near Nankana Sahib. The Pakistani govt has since initiated deportation proceedings, with the Attari land border cited as the likely return route. Sarabjit entered Pakistan on Nov 4, 2025, from Amritsar via the Attari border. She was part of a 1,932-member Sikh jatha visiting to mark the Prakash Purab of Guru Nanak Dev. The group was issued a 10-day single-entry religious visa, with a mandatory return date of Nov 13. When the pilgrims returned to India, only 1,931 devotees crossed back. Investigations revealed that Sarabjit was missing; her name appeared neither in Pakistan's exit records nor India's entry data, triggering a search by Pakistani police and the PSGPC. Subsequent inquiries revealed that Sarabjit had travelled beyond permitted pilgrimage locations to marry Hussain and convert to Islam, adopting the name Noor Hussain. Authorities later discovered that crucial details, including her nationality and passport number, were missing from her immigration forms, complicating the search. The couple had allegedly been living in hiding. Legal complications escalated after a constitutional petition was filed in the Lahore high court alleging visa violations, an illegal overstay, and security lapses. The court has issued a notice to the Pakistani state as authorities expedite Sarabjit Kaur's deportation. MSID:: 126351184 413 |