Sayesta Hanif, arrested Pakistani woman's fluency in Bengali surprises police in India

Kolkata, Nov 17, 2023, IANS

The fluency in Bengali language of Sayesta Hanif, the Pakistani woman arrested with her minor son Ariyan Mohammad Hanif at the India-Nepal border in northern West Bengal for illegally entering India, has left the investigating officials of the state police intrigued.

The woman was arrested on Wednesday evening.

The woman, who is currently in police custody for seven days, was being questioned by the sleuths of state police. During the course of interrogation they were surprised by her fluency and perfect pronunciation of Bengali dialect, which is no way different from what is spoken by averagely educated Bengalis, state police sources said.

However, the arrested woman had given her own logic behind her fluency and knowledge of Bengali language. She has claimed that her original name was Gouri Dey. Born in Assam, as claimed by her, her entire family shifted to North 24 Parganas district at a later stage.

There she entered into an emotional relationship with a youth of different religion, whom she got married against the wishes of her family. Subsequently she first moved to Delhi with her husband, then to Karachi in Pakistan and subsequently to Dubai, as per her version to the police.

Regarding her entry to India illegally without any visa, she had told the police that one of her sisters had been residing in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, who she had not met for years. She told the police that she applied for an Indian visa which was denied and so she decided to enter India via Nepal, sources said. She claimed that her desperation to meet her sister made her cross the borders illegally.

Meanwhile, her minor son, who is 11 years old, has been remanded to a juvenile home by a lower court in Darjeeling district. The judge of the lower court has directed that his proper care should be taken by the juvenile home authorities.

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