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Operation Sindoor, Wagah-Attari shut: How 150 Pakistani-Sindhi brides reached India amid strained ties
The tensions between India and Pakistan following Operation Sindoor had reportedly put the weddings of at least 150 Pakistani women on hold.
Over 150 brides from Pakistan, who were engaged to men in India but could not travel to the nation after the closure of Wagah border last year following the Pahalgam terror attack, have reportedly reached India.
The Attari-Wagah route for years had allowed families from Pakistan's Sindh province to marry their daughters in India. However, that changed after the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack left 26 people dead. As part of diplomatic measures against Islamabad, New Delhi had restricted visas and shut the border routes for Pakistani visitors.
As a result, weddings of at least 150 Pakistani-Sindhi women were put on hold. They had been engaged to men in India and were waiting to settle down in their marital homes.
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But their long wait has ended as the Centre issued visas to the Sindhi women and their relatives to visit India for the weddings.
"The long wait is over, finally," Rajesh Jhambia, a community leader from Nagpur, was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
He added that the brides and their kin have arrived in India through transit routes via Muscat, Dubai, Sri Lanka and other countries, adding that members of the Sindhi community used to visit India through the Wagah-Attari border in Punjab for such weddings.
"Everything changed after Operation Sindoor, as the government rejected visas to all those who were planning to visit the country via the Attari route," he was quoted as saying.
How the brides and their kin got visas
As the borders were shut and cast uncertainty over fate of the brides-to-be, Jhambia said the organisation approached the Raipur-based Sant Yudhishtirlal Shadaani, the spiritual head of Shadaani Darbar, a prominent Hindu religious shrine in Ghotki in Pakistan's Sindh province.
He said the Shadaani Darbar prepared a list of Pakistani women who were engaged to men in India. "There were about 150 brides who were to be married in Nagpur, Raipur, Jodhpur, Pune and other cities in India," he said.
The temple contacted the Ministry of Home Affairs with the list and urged the authorities to facilitate visas for these brides and their families to enable them to travel to India. But the MHA set a condition. The visitors could travel to India but they would have to travel by air.
"Since April this year, 150 brides and their families from Pakistan have travelled to India via Dubai, Oman, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries for the weddings. These include 15 cases from Nagpur," he said.
Jhambia said there are nearly 300 more such women in Pakistan waiting and that they have requested the Indian government to issue visas to them as well.
With PTI inputs
