In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a group of women from Pakistan, who came to the territory with their husbands, former Kashmiri mujahideen, have appealed to governments of India and Pakistan for travel documents to return home.
44-year-old Saira Javaid in a media interview in Srinagar said, “Fifteen years ago, I came to Kashmir with my husband for a small visit. But I got stuck. All my efforts to return home to Pakistan have not yielded any results so far.” She curses the day she crossed the border and came to the Valley.
In the year 2001, Saira, a Pakistani woman, who was born in Karachi, married a former mujahid, Javaid Ahmad Dar. In 2007, Javaid Ahmad Dar returned to Kashmir, along with his wife.
Saira currently lives in the Kupwara district of north Kashmir with her husband Dar and four children. “I am living fine with my husband here, but since I am not able to get citizenship, there are hardships at each level. The future of my children seems bleak,” she added.
She said that she arrived in India in 2007 with documents, three years before the rehabilitation policy. While herself stuck in Kashmir, she has lost eight family members back home in Karachi. “I lost my father, my younger brother and other relatives. I remained stuck in Kashmir and could not see them for one last time,” she says.
Saira was arrested with her husband in 2007 while entering India. Both remained imprisoned for three months and their documents were seized, effectively rendering Javaid a stateless citizen.
In 2010, when a rehabilitation policy was announced by IIOJK authorities for Kashmiri mujahideen living in Pakistan, Altaf Ahmad Butt chose to return to Kashmir with his Pakistani wife, Bushra.
In 2012, Bushra came to Kashmir along with her husband but could not return home. “I have moved from pillar to post to return, but unfortunately, no one is listening to my problems. During all these years, I used to fight with my husband for bringing me to Kashmir. The daily brawl ultimately resulted in divorce in the year 2019,” she told the media.
Bushra lives alone in Baramulla. She has also lost custody of her children and is battling hard to earn a livelihood. The 31-year-old woman, currently living in Kashmir’s Pattan area of Baramulla, asks, “For which sin are Pakistani wives being punished?”
However, both Saira and Bushra blame the rehabilitation policy for focusing only on the return of former mujahideen and making no provisions for the wives and children.
Similarly, another Pakistani woman, Ambreen Rehman, came to Kashmir along with her husband, Abdul Majeed Ahangar. “In 2013, I came to Kashmir with my husband. But I never knew I would be stuck in Kashmir. Only 20 days ago, I lost my mother back home in Pakistan and I could not attend her funeral”, said Ambreen Rehman, who lives in the Dragmulla area of Kupwara.
She added, “The government, by denying us citizenship, is spoiling the future of our children. We have been lodging regular protests to ask the government to either give us citizenship documents or deport us to Pakistan.”—KMS
