TIMERGARA: A woman from Canada arrived in Pakistan and married a young man from Lower Dir District after the two developed a relationship through social media, police officials said on Saturday.
The officials in Lower Dir said that the foreign woman and the local man solemnised the marriage of their own free will through the local court.
The official said the woman, Sarah Michel, arrived in Islamabad about a week ago, where she was received by the groom’s family members and relatives. And after spending some time there, she travelled to Timergara, and they were currently staying at a hotel.
“The groom’s family wanted to keep the marriage private, and for this reason, the couple chose to marry in Timergara instead of the groom’s native village in Maidan, and are currently residing at a local hotel in Timergara city,” he added. It merits a mention here that such cross-border marriages formed through social media have been reported before.
In 2023, a woman from neighbouring India, Anju, travelled to Pakistan after developing a relationship online and later married a man named Nasrullah in Dir. Their marriage received widespread media attention in both Pakistan and India.
In another similar case a few years ago, an American woman, Mendes, came to Upper Dir to marry a resident, Sajid Zaib, and the couple solemnized their marriage through a court ceremony.
Earlier, an American freelance journalist had also travelled to Pakistan to marry a man from Chitral.
