Even as her 'proximity' with former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh caused flutters, Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam on Wednesday said relationship was only of friendship and that she 'is definitely not an ISI agent.'
But the matter does not seem to be ending with that. As the Pakistani journalist addressed the media, Maulana Mabibur Rehman Shahi Imam, Jama Masjid Ludhiana, issued a fatwa in Ludhiana calling for her social boycott by Muslims.
The Shahi Imam said the tenets of Islam did not permit a woman to move about or keep company with any man other than her blood relations (father, mother and son).
Only on Tuesday, Punjab's leader of the opposition and Congress leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal had said that Amarinder Singh should be concerned about her image vis-a-vis his relationship with the Pakistani journalist.
Clearly overawed by media coverage, Aroosa, who is president of the Islamabad chapter of South Asian Free Media Association, said, "I do not know how such a controversy (her relationship and the allegation of her being an ISI agent) was created."
"Amarinder Singh is a wise man, a man with a vision, a charming person, has a good stature and is known in Pakistan," Aroosa, who is in her fifties, repeatedly told media persons at the press conference.
For the Indian media, which she said had intruded into her private life, she said: "Do you want that I should stop breathing? You can end the controversy. I had been coming to India even before I met Amarinder, but was never described as an ISI agent."
"We are journalists and should accept privacy of individuals," she said.
Aroosa, mother of two children, tried to steer clear of the controversy. "I had said in a lighter vein that Amarinder was a charming personality, but since Shariyat does not allow, she would have no hesitation in marrying him. I did not know you would take it seriously," she replied to a reporter.
Aroosa said there is no question of changing religion to marry. She said, "It is strange in India the media hits below the belt."
When reminded that the controversy was started by a Pakistan newspaper, Aroosa said, "I agree a Pakistani newspaper did it as there is a reason for that."
She said she was among those who had opposed the efforts of the newspaper to grab the land allotted to a housing society of journalists in Islamabad.
"The owner had some grudge against me and the paper came out with the story after a Pakistani journalist had returned after a visit to Indian Punjab."
She said no other newspaper in Pakistan carried the story, but in India all newspapers lifted it and called her and Amarinder Singh ISI agents.
And for the fatwa, she said: "I think Islam does not prohibit friendship and brotherhood. Religious interpretation of Islam is so wrong. Islam is a very liberal religion."
As per Islamic law, the Ludhiana cleric said, any Muslim woman and her paramour, if found to be having illicit relations, are liable to be punished by stoning to death in public.
The Maulana even went a step further -- he called upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately order an inquiry into this 'affair' (the relationship) to find out whether Aroosa had any relations with ISI or any other intelligence agency of Pakistan.
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