Cries echo as siblings shifted for deportation to Pakistan despite HC relief

Despite the J&K and Ladakh High Court admitting their plea against their deportation to Pakistan and granting them temporary relief, a police personnel and his eight siblings, including five sisters, were on Wednesday shifted from Jammu and Kashmir to Punjab for their deportation.

The nine members of the extended family were among the more than two dozen people, mostly from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), who were served deportation notices by authorities in Poonch, Rajouri, and Jammu districts in the aftermath of the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 people, mostly tourists, dead. The Centre announced a slew of measures, including suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, downgrading diplomatic relations with Islamabad, and ordering all Pakistanis on short-term visas to leave India by 27 April or face action.

Advertisement

The Pakistani nationals, many of whom were living in the Jammu region for decades, were taken in buses to Punjab, where they will be handed over to Pakistani authorities at the Attari border.

The police personnel, Ifthkar Ali (45), and his eight siblings, including five sisters aged between 42 and 56 years, got a respite when the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh admitted their petition claiming that they are not Pakistani nationals and have been living in Salwah village for generations.

“The petitioners be not asked or forced to leave the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This direction is, however, subject to objections from the other side,” Justice Rahul Bharti said in an order after hearing the plea of Ali, who has served in the police department for the last 27 years and is currently posted at the Katra base camp of the Vaishno Devi shrine.

Admitting their petition, supported by revenue records to prima facie establish that they are bona fide residents of Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, the judge asked government lawyers to submit a detailed report within two weeks and listed the case for the next hearing on 20 May.

The court also directed the Poonch Deputy Commissioner to furnish an affidavit with respect to the status of property holding, if any, by the petitioners. However, the nine siblings were taken from Jammu’s Kathua district to Punjab, where they stayed overnight for their subsequent deportation to Pakistan through the Attari border.

“We received the copy of the court order on Wednesday morning and immediately took up the matter with the Poonch district administration, but to our surprise, neither civil nor police officers are taking the responsibility to implement the court order,” socio-political activist Safeer Choudhary said.

Choudhary, who, along with relatives—including Ali’s wife and two minor children—staged a protest outside the Press Club here, appealed for the intervention of the Home Minister and the Lieutenant Governor to provide “justice to the family”.

Emotional scenes were witnessed at their house in Mendhar, with their spouses and children making passionate appeals to the government to stop their deportation. “We have no relatives in Pakistan. Where will they stay there?” Mohammad Farooq asked.

Similar heart-wrenching scenes unfolded in Rajouri district, where two aged sisters—Zameer Fatima and Sageer Fatima—were among the four people taken to Punjab for deportation. The sisters, who were hardly able to walk on their own, have been living with their families in the Shahdara Sharief area for 43 years.