Imtiyaz Sheikh Multan, 36, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora district, was arrested from Kutch in Gujarat. He had reached Kutch in Gujarat with the intention of crossing the border into Pakistan hoping to meet a Pakistani social media influencer, but was detained by the police, officials said on Wednesday. They said a 36-year-old man from Jammu and Kashmir, who had reached Khavda village in Kutch district, was detained by the police when he was trying to cross the border into Pakistan to meet a woman he had contacted online.
Sheikh thought he could legally enter Pakistan through the Kutch border and so he sought help from local residents to obtain permission from the authorities. “Sheikh had come to Khavda to meet a woman he had contacted online and wanted to cross the border and enter Pakistan. He was taken into custody after reaching Khavda on Tuesday,” Kutch (West) Superintendent of Police Sagar Bagmar said.
He said that after conducting a preliminary investigation and verifying the facts with Sheikh’s family and local police in Jammu and Kashmir, the officers found that there was no threat and he was released in the evening. Baghmar said that Sheikh appeared to be mentally challenged. Inspector MB Chauhan said that it was not easy to go to Pakistan from Kashmir, due to which Sheikh tried to cross the border from Kutch in an attempt to find an easy way to meet the influencer.
Chauhan said, “Sheikh was influenced by a Pakistani social media influencer from Multan city and decided to meet the female influencer. He used Google Maps and found Kutch to be the nearest place.” He said that he sought help from the villagers to get approval from the authorities to enter Pakistan legally. Chauhan said, “After the villagers informed us, we brought him to the police station.”
