An Indian woman has claimed that a Pakistani High Commission employee had sought sexual favours from her in exchange for issuing a visa to travel to Pakistan. The official allegedly touched her inappropriately and asked questions about her sexuality. He also asked her to make anti-India comments on social media in exchange of getting a Pakistani visa.
According to a report by Times Now, the woman, a professor, alleged that the Pakistani official held her hand and asked her if she was married. She also alleged that the staffer told her that they can marry four times, if bored.
The woman said, “I went to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi in March 2021 and June last year. I was asked to wait in a lounge and then after some time, I was told that a visa cannot be granted as the then Pakistan government was not stable as a no-confidence motion was passed against the then prime minister Imran Khan. When I was leaving the office, a person, who identified himself as Asif, approached me and said that ‘I would have granted a visa to you if you had come to me’ and asked me to go back to the lounge and wait there.”
She added, “He later called me to another room in the same corridor and I sat there. He (Asif) said that a visa officer will come by 2 pm. Then he started talking to me in general about my visa requirement, and I kept answering. Then he asked if I was married which was a generic question and I replied ‘no sir I’m not married’, then he asked ‘why? what happened?’ He then asked ‘what do you do to fulfil your sexual desire’. I got a little uncomfortable.”
The woman further alleged, “He also asked do you have somebody to have sex with, do you have somebody with whom you go out, can you have an extramarital affair. I got up and asked him to call the visa officer.”
The woman added that the Pakistani official had urged her to write comments on social media against India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kashmir. She said that she wanted to leave the room when the officer started the ‘pervert’ talks, but he continued for around 20 minutes before she could leave. When she wanted to leave the room, he hold her hand and asked her to stay back, continuing with his questions about her sexuality. She said she want to leave, but he insisted that she should continue. After around 20-25 minutes, she was able to exit the embarrassing situation.
The woman had applied for a Pakistani visa after she was sponsored to visit a gurdwara in Lahore to attend an event. She was also scheduled to deliver a lecture at a different venue. The woman has written a letter to External Affairs minister S Jaishankar detailing the incident and seeking justice.