A love affair between Pakistan's cricket captain and an Indian girl has turned sour with Shoaib Malik accusing her Muslim family of trying to commit an internet marriage fraud with him.
Malik has been at the centre of a row with the Indian family based in Hyderabad, who claim that he exchanged marriage vows with their daughter Ayesha in 2002 over the telephone and has now deserted her.
Malik and his brother-in-law Imran told a news conference in Lahore on Tuesday that Malik had fallen in love with a girl over the internet and on the phone.
"I was interested in marrying her after she told me she belonged to an Indian Muslim family in Hyderabad and sent me her pictures," Malik said.
Imran said, however, that they came to realise in 2005 that the girl in the photograph was not the daughter of the Indian family, the Siddiquis, whose daughter had in fact duped Malik on the internet into believing she was the girl in the picture.
"The girl in the picture never came before us for years and we ended the relationship in 2005 after we came to know something was wrong. No marriage was ever solemnized. We are now planning to go to India and file a case for defamation against this family," Imran said.
MARRIAGE VOWS
However, M.A. Siddiqui alleges that the Pakistani cricketer had exchanged marriage vows with his daughter on June 3, 2002 and says he has proof of it.
He has threatened to move the court to get justice and a divorce for his daughter, who he says has been ill since Malik denied his relationship with her.
Some school of thought of the Islamic Shariah laws recognise the exchange of marriage vows over the telephone.
Malik said he just wanted to concentrate on his cricket career.
"I will not speak on this issue any more. After they tried to dupe us we decided to keep quiet about it because of the girl whose photograph they showed me.
"But now they are trying to exploit my standing as an international cricketer," Malik added.
The relationship between Malik and Ayesha was reported widely in the Indian and Pakistani press over the last few years because of the stormy political ties between the two countries.
A Pakistani cricketer falling in love with an Indian girl made headline news.
The girl's father had also hosted a big reception for the Pakistan team at his residence in Hyderabad when they toured in 2005 but the girl was said to be in United States then with her grandmother.
