Mulayam Singh Yadav's wife Iqra Jeevani sent back to Pakistan

Iqra Jeevani, the girl who had escaped from Hyderabad city in the southern Sindh province in Pakistan, and married Indian man Mulayam Singh Yadav, has been sent back to her home.

The minor girl was arrested from Bengaluru in January after entering India in September through the porous India-Nepal border. She tied the knot with the 25-year-old security guard from Uttar Pradesh, whom she met through a gaming app.

The girl's father, Sohail Jeewani, said they had already gone through a lot of pain and embarrassment and just wanted to move on.

"I don't want her or anyone else in my family to speak on this issue. What has happened has happened. Yes I confirm she has been returned to us and we are leaving from Lahore tonight," PTI quoted Sohail as saying.

The girl's case has garnered a lot of attention in both countries after she was recovered by the Indian authorities in January in Bengaluru. Iqra, who is 16 years of age, left her home in Shahi Bazar in Hyderabad for her college - Federal Government Girls College - on September 19, 2022 and was found four months later in Bengaluru when police arrested a young boy she was living with.

It transpired she had developed a friendship and then relationship with the Indian man, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and apparently married him. "She had called us from India in early January to inform us she was safe and married to this Indian man," her uncle Afzal Jeewani said.

A senior police official said the family informed them about the call and they got in touch through required channels with the Pakistan foreign office who then contacted their Indian counterparts to help find and recover the girl. A few days after her contact, she was arrested along with her purported husband. Afzal claimed that the Indian man had deceived his niece by posing as a Muslim boy when the two met on social media while playing online Ludo games.

According to reports, Bengaluru police arrested Yadav, accusing him of bringing a Pakistani girl to India after befriending her. Iqra was subsequently handed over to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office officials, who later remanded her to a state home for women. She was handed over to the Pakistani authorities on Sunday at the Wagah border.

"The man used to work as a security guard at a private firm and used to play Ludo online. Last year, he came in contact with a minor girl. Recently, he asked his Pakistani girlfriend to come to Bengaluru so they could get married. They made a plan to bring her over to India through Nepal in September 2022," a report had quoted Deputy commissioner of police, Whitefield, S Girish as saying.