The Pakistani husband of Seema Haider Rind, who illegally entered India in May 2023 and was found living with her Indian lover, is seeking the return of his four children to Pakistan, saying he feared the children would be subjected to religious conversion.

Seema has three daughters and one son with Ghulam Haider. She took all four children to India when she left Pakistan after meeting her Indian lover, Sachin Meena, online. The children are now living with Seema and Sachin in Greater Noida, in India’s UP state.

Ghulam Haider approached Karachi-based NGO Ansar Burney Trust which works for the recovery of missing and kidnapped children on Friday.

Haider was working in Saudi Arabia when Seema left for India with the children. He was still in Saudi Arabia when the news broke in July and returned to the country months later.

Seema announced her conversion to Hinduism and marriage to Sachin Meena after they were released by Indian authorities. They are now expecting their first child together.

Speaking to Aaj News, Ghulam Haider said he is not interested in what Seema is doing about her faith. “But my children are innocent and their religion cannot be changed,” he said.

The eldest of the four children is currently nine years old.

“I appeal to Pakistan’s top institutions to help my children renited with me,” he said.

Ansar Burney, who runs the Ansar Burney Trust, told Aaj News that international law prohibits religious conversion of underage children. It is not a simple matter of a woman leaving the country and crossing into India, he said.

He said his NGO would hire a lawyer in India to take the battle to Indian courts.

Seema was living in a Karachi neighbourhood in a house bought with Haider’s money when she met Sachin Meena while playing PUBG in 2019. She visited Nepal in March 2023 to meet Sachin for the first time.

In May 2023, she sold the house and travelled to Nepal again with her children. Seema illegally crossed over to India later in the same month.

Sachin and Seema were arrested on July 4. A day after the arrests were announced Haider spoke to a group of journalists in his native town of Jacobabad via the internet and said that he wanted his children back. He said he believed Seema had been “trapped” on PUBG.