E-Paper
HC seeks MHA reply over sacking of jawan who wed Pak woman
Munir Ahmed was dismissed after India decided to repatriate Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
JAMMU The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh high court has sought response from the Union home secretary and others after a CRPF jawan, who was dismissed from service for marrying a Pakistani woman, challenged his termination.
CRPF jawan Munir Ahmed was dismissed from service after it was found that he married his cousin sister Menal Khan, a Pakistani national who had migrated from Jammu’s Bhalwal tehsil during partition in 1947.
Justice Javed Iqbal Wani has issued notices to CRPF and MHA and directed the respondents to file their objections on or before the next date of hearing which has been scheduled on June 30.
In his writ petition, Ahmed said that since he was sacked from service in “an arbitrary, capricious, and whimsical manner” through an impugned termination order dated May 2 2025, he requested the Jammu and Kashmir high Court to “set it aside”, his counsel advocate Ankur Sharma told HT.
“From 2022, he had duly intimated the authorities concerned in the CRPF about his marriage and duly followed the procedure and rule,” Sharma said.
Ahmed said that he first filed an application seeking permission for his marriage in 2022. However, in January 2023, it was reverted, along with some objections.
A letter by inspector general of police, CRPF Jammu informed the special director general of police, Jammu and Kashmir about Ahmed’s intimation in November 2023.
On April 30, 2024, the then director general of the CRPF certified that he “intimated the department well within the rules” and said that he found “no mention of not issuing a no-objection certificate under the rules”, according to the petition.
Moreover, Ahmed relied upon a series of letters of recommendation from local BJP MPs, who wrote to the external affairs ministry seeking a visa for his wife.
In the latest letter dated February 6, 2025, Gulam Ali Khatana, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP requested external affairs minister S. Jaishankar to expedite the granting of a long-term visa to Menal Ahmed.
Ahmed was dismissed after India decided to repatriate Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
