LOVE SANS FRONTIERS

An Andhra woman is fighting for the release of her Pakistani husband from jail.Supporting her are relatives and friends on both sides of the border

- RAHUL DEVULAPALLI

Among the hundreds of inmates in Hyderabad's biggest prison, the Cherlapally Central Jail, is a Pakistani citizen- Shaik Gulzar Massih, alias Gulzar Khan. A native of Kulluwal village in Pakistan's Punjab province, Gulzar, 55, has been in jail for more than a year. His release remains uncertain, but one woman each on either side of the India-Pakistan border is desperately awaiting it.

One of the women is Sheela Lal, a paramedic who lives in Rawalpindi and works in Islamabad. Gulzar is her younger brother, one of her seven siblings.

Sheela had been trying to track him down since 2010, when he disappeared from Saudi Arabia without a trace. The family had been clueless whether he was dead or alive. "My mother cried so much that it ruined her health," Sheela told THE WEEK on phone.

Gulzar hails from a Christian family. His father, Lal Khan, was a shepherd. He died when the children were still young. Sheela and her sister were sent to missionary institutions for higher education, while Gulzar dropped out of school and went to Sialkot. The city was a sports goods manufacturing hub; he joined a factory that made footballs.

Sheela said Gulzar disliked the job and sought money from the family to move to Saudi Arabia. "My mother had to sell land to sponsor his journey," she said.

Gulzar landed in Saudi Arabia in 2005 and became a house painter. He would wire money and call the family regularly, but became cool and distant as the years went by. Then he vanished.

The family tried contacting him though his employer and colleagues, but they did not know his whereabouts. "Nobody knew where he went," said Sheela. "We pooled money and sent a brother to Saudi Arabia to find him. He came back empty-handed after two years," said Sheela. The family thought Gulzar was dead.

In January 2011, Gulzar appeared in Gadivemula, a nondescript village in Andhra Pradesh, and met Daulat Bee, a widow and mother of one.