ISLAMABAD: Pakistan this week issued a citizenship certificate to a woman who is currently in a Bangalore detention center after spending four years in an Indian prison for entering the country without a visa, the interior minister has said. 

According to media reports, Karachi-born Sameera Abdul Rahman was living in Qatar where she met an Indian man, whom she married against the wishes of her family. Her husband brought her to India without a visa in 2016, for which both of them were imprisoned. 

“A Pakistani woman, Sameera, detained in India has been issued the Pakistani citizenship certificate,” Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told media on Thursday. “Sameera has been issued the citizenship certificate after the verification of her family.”

Ahmed said the ministry had sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and shared Rahman’s citizenship certificate. The Pakistan High Commission would issue the relevant travel documents to the woman after the official process of her citizenship confirmation was completed, Ahmed said, saying she would be able to travel to Pakistan with her daughter once she got her travel documents. 

BBC Urdu reported that Rahman gave birth to a daughter in prison in 2017. A few months later, her husband was released on bail. A relative of Rahman’s who spoke to BBC Urdu said two to three years into her imprisonment, her husband stopped contacting her and Rahman realized only authorities in Pakistan could get her out of India. 

After completing her imprisonment sentence, Rahman moved into a detention center in Bangalore where she requested the government of Pakistan, through her lawyer Sahana Biswa Patna, to issue her a citizenship certificate so she could return home.