5 famous Indian women who married Pakistani men

Indian Pakistani marriages that made headlines involved Pakistani sports stars and famous Indian women

Agencies

NEW DELHI: Speaking about Indian Pakistani marriages, there have been many unions and love affairs between Pakistani men and women. Yes, men are always from Pakistan and women are always from India… says a lot about the cultural differences between the two countries – one secular and the other an Islamic nation.

Here is a look at the five most famous Indian women who got hooked up with famous Pakistani men:

1: Reena Roy and Mohsin Khan: This was one of the most high-profile Indian Pakistani marriages. Dashing Pakistani cricketer Mohsin Khan, who played for his country between 1977 to 1986, swept Bollywood actress Reena Roy off her feet in 1983 when she was at the peak of her film career. The two married in 1983 and had a daughter named Sanam.

Even as Reena cut down on her films after her marriage, Mohsin turned actor and acted in over a dozen Bollywood films, including the 1991 thriller Saathi.
But their marriage didn’t last and the couple divorced. Mohsin got custody of their daughter Sanam and moved back to Karachi. But when he remarried, Reena got custody of Sanam.

2: Rita Luthra and Zaheer Abbas: Yet another of famous Indian Pakistani marriages involved a Pakistani cricketer. Zaheer Abbas was considered Asia’s Bradman at the top of his career. The two met in the1980s in England where Zaheer was playing county cricket for Gloucestershire and Luthra was an interior design student.
The two married in 1988 and Rita Luthra changed her name to Samina Abbas. The couple live in Karachi where Rita runs her interior designing business.

Interestingly, Zaheer Abbas was born in Sialkot in Pakistani Punjab where Rita’s father’s family used to live before the Partition. Rita’s father was a friend of Mohsin’s father from their Sialkot days.

In 1947, Rita’s father moved to Kanpur’s Swarup Nagar. But it was destiny that brought the two families together in the 1980s through Rita and Zaheer Abbas.

3: Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik: This one of Indian Pakistani marriages involved two sporting stars. In 2010, India’s most famous female player Sania Mirza created sensation when she decided to tie the knot with Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik. What a drama of a marriage it turned out to be!

Sania broke off her engagement to her childhood sweetheart Sohrab Mirza to marry Shoaib.

And just before their wedding it came out that Shoaib Malik too was already married to another Hyderabadi girl Ayesha Siddiqui.

Though Malik initially denied it, when Ayesha’s family produced the marriage certificate he conceded that he was previously married to Ayesha but had divorced her.
After the marriage, Sania didn’t move to Pakistan as she preferred to play for India.
Today, Sania and Shoaib are happily married  for four years.

4: Tavleen Singh and Salman Taseer: Indian journalist and author Tavleen Singh met Pakistani politician Salman Taseer (later Punjab governor who was assassinated by his own bodyguard) in London in the late 1970s when she was working there.
Salman was already  married man with children, but the rich aristocrat from Lahore showed no hesitation in seducing the good-looking Sardarni from Delhi.

As the late Khushwant Singh wrote of the Tavleen-Salman affair, “They hit it off and spent the whole week together. Tavleen became pregnant. She wrote to him in Lahore and toyed with the idea of aborting her pregnancy. He dissuaded her from doing so. He rented a flat for her in London. He joined her for a while. But his ardour had abated. He had more affairs, including one with an Indian film star… Tavleen sensed the romance was over and returned to Delhi much embittered by her experience.’’
Their brief union was their son Aatish Taseer.

5: Nonita Lall and Faisal Qureshi: India’s top female golfer Nonita Lall met Pakistani golfing champion Faisal Qureshi in early 1992 during a golf tournament in Islamabad. A rip-roaring romance developed between them during the tournament.

A month later, Qureshi went on his knees and proposed to Nonita. She said `yes’ and and the two married immediately.

Like Sania Mirza, Nonia Lall also told her would-be husband that she would continue to live in Delhi and play for India
.

“It was very clear that I would continue to play for India while Faisal played for Pakistan. I played for India for years after my marriage, till 1999, to be precise,’’ Nonita said in a interview some time ago.

The couple, who currently live in New Delhi and had a son, briefly lived in Sri Lanka because of visa problems for her Pakistani husband.