After Pahalgam terror attack, cross-border families in limbo
After a pregnant Pakistani woman married in India appealed to President to allow her to stay back, another woman born in India and married in Pakistan refused to leave without her two children.
An India-born woman who became a citizen of Pakistan after marrying a Pakistani man, and a Pakistani woman married to an Indian man have refused to return to Pakistan following a central government directive issued after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which led to a review of visas granted to Pakistani nationals.
In Meerut’s Sardhana, a woman named Sana, who became a Pakistani citizen after marrying a Pakistan national, came to India on a 40-day visa for a family wedding but declined to send her children back to Pakistan without her.
In a separate case, a pregnant woman in Bulandshahr on a tourist visa has appealed to the Prime Minister for permission to stay back, calling herself “India’s daughter-in-law” and citing humanitarian grounds. Police confirmed that the two women have been allowed to stay back till further orders.
In the Meerut case, the woman, Sana, who was born an Indian became a Pakistani citizen after marrying a Pakistani man, has returned to her parental home in Sardhana’s Ghosiyan locality along with her two young children after declining to comply with the Ministry of External Affairs’ directive to send her children alone to Pakistan, sparking a diplomatic and humanitarian dilemma.
According to local police, Sana, daughter of Piruddin, a resident of Sardhana, married a man in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2020. With her three-year-old son and six-month-old daughter, she came to India on a 40-day visa to attend a family wedding in Sardhana scheduled for April 26.
However, following the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, the Indian government began reviewing the stay of Pakistani nationals who had entered the country on short-term visas of two months or less. On April 25, Sana and her children were sent to Amritsar for deportation to Pakistan through the Wagah border.
However, while the Ministry of External Affairs approved Sana’s stay in India and instructed her children to return to Pakistan, Sana refused to send them alone. At the Wagah border, she pleaded with officials, saying, “I came from Pakistan with my children and I must be allowed to return with them. Otherwise, I will stay here in India with them.”
The authorities told her that the matter would be referred to higher officials. Subsequently, she returned to her parental home in Sardhana. On Saturday, she attended the family wedding with her children and reiterated her stance: “I cannot send my children to Pakistan without me. Wherever I stay, my children will be with me.”
“Sana’s case has been referred to higher authorities. She can stay in India till further orders,” said DSP Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal.
Earlier, a three-month pregnant Pakistani woman, Maryam, who married a man from Bulandshahr’s Khurja in 2022 and came to India in February this year on a tourist visa, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow her to stay here, claiming she no longer belongs to Pakistan but is now a ‘daughter-in-law of India’.
“I am deeply saddened by the Pahalgam incident. The culprits must be punished. But what is my fault? I am pregnant. How can I travel in such a condition?” she said, adding that she had already spent three years living without her husband due to visa issues.
Desperate to stay with her husband, she claimed she has also sent a petition to the President through the senior superintendent of police of Bulandshahr, requesting a long-term visa in light of her pregnancy.
Bulandshahr SSP Dinesh Kumar Singh confirmed that Maryam would remain in Bulandshahr for now. “A final decision on her departure will be made after further guidelines from the government. Meanwhile, her exit form has been filled in but she will stay here until new orders come,” he said.
