quote:

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> This is a very serious matter because as I am sure you probably
> already know, if they send her back to the UAE her brothers will kill
> her.
>
> There was a case a number of years ago in the UAE where a girl eloped
> against the wishes of her family. She was arrested by the police.
> Shaikh Zayed, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, got directly involved. He called
> the brothers and all the members of the family of the girl before him
> and got them all to solemnly promise that if he released the girl to
> them, they would not harm her in any way. They made this promise.
>
> Based upon this promise, Shaikh Zayed released the girl to her family,
> and they killed her right away.
>
> These cases happen all the time in the UAE. I worked for one of the
> newspapers there and such cases often come to the attention of the
> newspaper journalists. However, they have an understanding that such
> cases will never be publicized in the press.
>
> Haji Ismail Sloan
>
> Kohat Newsletter
>
> Abdul Sami Paracha
>
> An Arab lady who flew all alone from the deserts of the UAE to the
> rugged mountains in a remote village of North West Frontier Province
> in Karak district to marry her former chauffeur, has taken refuge in
> the tribal area to evade arrest and deportation.
>
> The couple tied the knot in the presence of the elders of the area and
> was living happily until the interior ministry issued their arrest
> warrants on the request of the UAE embassy.
>
> The newly wed Sheikha Mohammad Alhamadi begged the locals for mercy
> and protection for herself and her spouse. Neither she nor her husband
> is terrorist. Her only crime being falling in love and marrying a
> Pakistani against the will of her brothers who wanted to give her hand
> to only an Arab descendant.
>
> Twenty-one-year old, Sheikha Mohammad Alhamadi has taken shelter in
> Miran Shah, the headquarters of the tribal area of North Waziristan
> along with 37-year-old Jum Raz Khan to fight a legal battle to win
> amnesty. Because the hounds are chasing to hunt them down as they were
> al-Qaeda.
>
> She came on a legal visa to Pakistan, which is valid till July 7. Both
> were married on April 7, the day when she arrived in Pakistan. The
> nikkah was performed by the ruling MMA's district president Maulana
> Noor Mohammad Sahib Gul in the presence of two witnesses - Adamsaz and
> Zubair.
>
> The officials investigating the case giving further details to the
> Statesman said that she while narrating her ordeal to some local
> elders said that her father owed 100,000 riyals to Raz and failing to
> pay the money he promised to give her hand to him. Raz served in the
> UAE for 14 years. He knew that they both were in love. However after
> the death of her father her brothers refused to honour his word and
> put Raz in jail after implicating him in false cases.
>
> Disgruntled by the circumstances, Raz moved to Pakistan after his
> release from jail but remained in constant touch with her. She by
> exercising her right guaranteed in Islam to choose her husband being
> mature adult secretly came to Pakistan and married Raz.
>
> The police had arrested the two brothers of the groom to force him to
> give himself up. The family of the groom had vacated their house due
> to the fear of the police, which had been searching for them in every
> nook, and corner of the district.
>
> The Karak police when contacted in this regard replied that they only
> know, according to a fax received from Islamabad on April 17, that Raz
> had seduced Sheikha Mohammad and by not showing up in the police
> station despite several summons he had proved himself to be guilty.
> The police had declared him absconder. It is pertinent to ask that how
> a man sitting in Pakistan could seduce a woman who is hundreds of
> miles away.
>
> The police say that they did not know the facts but they are duty
> bound to arrest both of them, punish the man and hand over the lady to
> the UAE embassy for deportation.
>
> When asked whether love or lawful marriage was a crime in any part of
> the world a police officer said according to the fax he got from his
> bosses, yes. Juma Raz and his two brothers had been booked under
> section 342 of Pakistan Penal Code for keeping Sheikha Mohammad in
> illegal confinement.
>
> A compulsory punishment awaits the groom in Pakistan while his beloved
> would be deported once arrested.
>
> Sheikha Mohammad has appealed to the president and the prime minister
> of Pakistan to intervene and stop their harassment as they had done
> nothing wrong. She pleaded for citizenship, as she wanted to spend
> rest of her life in Pakistan with her husband.
>
> It seems very queer that ferocious terrorists hiding in the tribal
> areas are being offered various concessions but on the other hand a
> harmless couple is being harassed for no sin or crime.
>
> Earlier a lady from the UAE came to Kohat and married her love on her
> sweet will. She was forcibly deported on the orders of a local court
> last year.
>
> Another victim, Essa Khan, 28, who fell in love with an Afghan lady
> during his studying in Peshawar and migrated to Shabarghan after
> marrying her was arrested from his clinic by the forces of Northern
> Alliance on the charge of spying for Pakistan after September 9
> terrorist attacks in 2001. Now his wife Faheema is afraid of returning
> to Pakistan fearing that she might be arrested and ferried to Cuba
> along with her two years old son Ahmad Tariq.
>
> Her 75-year-old mother, Sardara who weeps day and night had lost sight
> in one eye is praying God for her sons safe release. She wants to see
> her son once before death, Azeem Khan informed.
>
> A few years back a guy from Bannu, Aman Khan married a girl in the UAE
> who later fled his home to his husband�es hometown where she was
> accepted as his second wife by his parents. Both were deported. The
> man after serving a short jail term got himself released after paying
> a Rs1 million fine.
>
> Everybody hopes that the government would pass on a sweet message to
> the lovebirds all over the world that love bodes all good while the
> ordeal of Raz and Sheikha Mohammad recede as just a bad dream.