J&K Top Court Asks MHA To Bring Deported Pakistani Spouse Of Kashmiri Man Back

SRINAGAR: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to bring back a 63-year-old woman Rakshanda Rashid, among scores of Pakistanis repatriated to the neighbouring country in response to the April 22 deadly terror attack at Pahalgam that killed 25 Hindu tourists and a local Muslim horse-handler, back and facilitate her reunion with her family.

India had suspended visa services for Pakistani nationals and after revoking most existing visas ordered almost all Pakistani citizens to leave the country following the Pahalgam carnage. Rashid was reportedly holding a Long-Term Visa (LTV), which, under Indian immigration rules, can allow Pakistani nationals to stay in the country under certain conditions. Despite this, she was removed from Indian territory in what her husband Sheikh Zahoor Ahmed described as a blanket repatriation campaign that did not consider individual circumstances or health conditions.

“She was left alone in Pakistan, a country where she has no relatives, no legal protection, and no support,” Sheikh told the court, adding that his wife is seriously ill and struggling to survive.

After hearing arguments and counter-arguments in a writ petition filed by him, Justice Rahul Bharti took strong exception to the way the woman’s case was handled. The Court ordered the MHA to ensure Rashid's return to Jammu within ten days and to facilitate her reunion with her family. Stating that human rights are the most sacrosanct component of a human life, Justice Bharti emphasized that constitutional courts are often compelled to act swiftly and humanely, even before the full legal facts are established, especially in urgent and distressing situations.

The Court was of the view that Rashid’s visa status was not properly examined before she was deported. “Without examining her case in better perspective and coming up with a proper order… she came to be forced out,” the Court observed, calling it an "exceptional case demanding urgent redressal." The MHA has been asked to file a compliance report by July 1.

Advocate Himani Khajuria appeared on behalf of the petitioner, while Deputy Solicitor General Vishal Sharma represented the central government and other respondents.

A Kashmir-born Pakistani national who was being taken to Punjab for his repatriation to the neighbouring country through the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at the Attari border had died due to a massive heart attack on May 1.

69-year-old Abdur Waheed Bhat who was suffering from multiple ailments for quite some time was “collected” by the J&K police from his Srinagar home for his repatriation to Pakistan. But he suffered a cardiac arrest near Amritsar and died.

Following the Pahalgam carnage, scores of Pakistanis, many of them the spouses of surrendered Kashmiri militants, and their children born in the neighbouring country were repatriated through Attari border after they were collected by the police from various districts of J&K and taken in buses to Punjab. This had caused significant emotional and familial disruptions.

However, the J&K police had claimed that most of those detained by it for their repatriation had defied the official diktat even after being served notices to leave India by the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), CID Special Branch (SB) Kashmir, who also holds the charge of Foreigners Registration Officer (FRO) in Kashmir.”

The Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs (Foreigners-I Division) had on April 25 directed all foreign nationals (Pakistani) staying illegally in India to leave the country positively by or before April 27.

The J&K and Ladakh high court order asking the MHA to bring Rashid back is being seen as the first legal challenge to the sweeping deportation campaign that has drawn criticism for indiscriminately targeting women who had come to Kashmir under the former cross-border rehabilitation policy.

These women came to J&K after the Government of India announced a ‘rehabilitation policy’ for the former Kashmiri militants who had crossed over to Pakistan and PoJK in the 1990s in lieu of a surrender.

Under this policy announced by the then Omar Abdullah-led national Conference-Congress coalition government following the consent of the MHA in 2010, around 212 former militants returned to J&K from PoJK through Nepal and other routes between 2010 and 2012.

Though the government had received as many as 1,082 applications from such youth who had crossed the LoC apparently to receive arms training, the government had approved only 219 cases after security clearance. Many of them returned here with their Pakistani or PoJK wives and children.

These women had pleaded “Allow us to stay here or send us to Pakistan in body bags.” An official had told this newspaper privately that since many of these women are actually the residents of PoJK which is a part of J&K and thereby, as per the Indian official stand, very much an integral part of the country.

However in the past, these women had held a series of street protests in capital Srinagar and other parts of the Kashmir Valley saying the Indian authorities are not permitting them to return to Pakistan. They would complain that they have been caught in a situation where their lives have become extremely difficult and unpleasant because they are neither being granted Indian nationality nor allowed to return to Pakistan.