Pahalgam terror attack: Kashmir's nowhere women living on the edge

Hindustan Times

29-04-2025

'I don't want to go back to Pakistan. Neither do my three children though they were born there. We have relatives across the border, but everything else here in Kashmir. All we want is Indian citizenship,' says the Lahore native, who settled down in Sopore with her Kashmiri husband over a decade ago under the then state government's amnesty policy for former militants.
'The escalating tension between India and Pakistan after last week's Pahalgam terror attack has all of us worried. The uncertainty is the only topic of discussion at our homes for the past four days,' she says, requesting anonymity.
She is among nearly 400 women who came to the Valley with their Kashmiri husbands after 2010 when the then chief minister, Omar Abdullah, announced a return and rehabilitation policy for former militants living in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Of the many Kashmiri youngsters who had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) into PoK in the 1990s to get arms training after insurgency in Kashmir, some had given up violence, married there and started their lives afresh.
They are worried after the Centre ordered the exit of Pakistani citizens currently in India on short-term or now-invalid visas in the aftermath of the April 22 terror attack. 'For the past four days, the Pahalgam attack has been the main topic of discussion in our homes. We are always on the radar of different agencies despite staying in Kashmir for over a decade,' she says.
These women and their estimated 3,000 children, who have been residing in different parts of the Kashmir Valley, have neither been given Indian citizenship nor do they have any travel documents for the past 14 years.
No exit order
They have not yet been ordered to leave but the Jammu and Kashmir authorities are collecting details of Pakistanis living in the restive region.
The women had been holding protests in Srinagar for years, seeking the right to visit their relatives in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), but the recent escalation of tension between the two countries has left them worried as they fear they may be asked to leave Kashmir Valley permanently, uprooting their families.
'We just want the right to travel to visit our relatives in PoK. Our homes, husbands and children are here. How can we go just like that? If we go, we will stay for a few days and return,' says Kubra, who had come to south Kashmir along with her husband in 2014.
'We have been living here for more than one decade. It's true we wanted to meet our families in Pakistan but not like by being deported. We want permission to go and return,' says Fancy, who lives on the outskirts of Baramulla. 'We will remain worried till we get Indian citizenship. We have been trying for it for years. Even our children face a lot of problems,' she says.
'We are very angry with the attack on tourists. We have seen miseries and suffered, too. We know the pain of families who have lost their dear ones in Pahalgam,' she says.
Checks underway
Mohammad Yousuf, who returned from PoK with his wife and their three children, says they were asked to provide family details when representatives from the Srinagar police visited their home in the Old City. 'They took details of when we came to the Valley and compiled a report. We believe the order (of exit) does not apply to families like us,' he says.
Back then in 2010, following opposition from Pakistan and the then Indian government's assertion that there were practical problems in implementing the rehabilitation policy, the former militants and their families were forced to take a route through Nepal with the J&K authorities going soft on them.
The informal entry meant there was no official recognition of their families or any documents, which would help them travel and acquire education.
'We're already Indian'
Some of the women say they are already Indian citizens as India claims PoK is a part of Kashmir. 'I'm from Muzaffarabad and according to the Indian Constitution, PoK is ours. If someone has come from PoK, that person is by default an Indian citizen,' says a woman from PoK who is settled in Kupwara.
Dozens of women returned to PoK, some even via Nepal, after they failed to settle down in the Valley. However, many have set up small businesses in Kashmir. 'I run a boutique and make good earnings. It's true, we have protested in the past to be allowed to travel to Pakistan to meet our families but now we don't want to go there. So far, nobody has asked us to go, but there's always a lurking fear,' says Fancy, who didn't want to reveal her full name.