Living in Odisha for three decades, woman with Pakistani passport faces heartbreaking deportation

The Hindu

26-04-2025

A woman from Pakistan, married for 35 years and settled in Odisha's Balangir district, has been plunged into deep mental agony as the Indian government pushes for the deportation of all Pakistani nationals following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam.
Fifty three-year-old Sharada Bai— now Sharada Kukreja — shivered at the very thought of being separated from her family: her husband, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren.
'My family came to India more than three decades years ago,' she says, her voice trembling as media persons crowd around her home after news broke that she was technically a Pakistani national. 'I landed in Koraput district with my family members, where I married Mahesh Kukreja, a bangle trader.'
The woman's family, hailing from Sukkur city of Pakistan's Sindh province and professing Hindu religion, had migrated to India on a 60-days visa in 1987. She has received deportation notice more than three decades after her visa expired.
'All existing VISAs except medical VISA, long term VISA and diplomatic VISA and official VISA issued by government of India to Pakistan nationals stand revoked with immediate effect from April 27. As per our available record, you neither have a valid long term VISA nor coming under exempted category of VISAs. Hence, you are directed to quit India at the earliest as deemed proper failing which legal action will be taken against you,' reads a letter by Balangir Superintendent of Police addressed to Ms. Kukreja.
Her sister who is settled in Raipur of Chhattisgarh also faces similar dilemma, family sources said.
Fighting back tears, she folds her hands and pleads, 'Ever since I came here, I have lived as an Indian. My family is here. I have no connection with Pakistan. I have never been there, never spoken to anyone there. I don't even have an address there. Please, don't separate me from my family. I want to stay with them until my last breath.'
Ms. Kukreja says she has been living like any ordinary Indian and possesses an Aadhaar number. She claims she has even voted in the recent elections.
'I may have been born in Pakistan, but my life is here. My daughter is married [here] and my son too has a family. We all live together,' she says, her voice breaking into incoherence due of fear and helplessness.
Ms. Kukreja has applied for Indian citizenship several times in the past, but for reasons beyond her understanding, the process never materialized.
Her son, equally distressed, quivers at the idea of his mother being forced away. 'She first came to Koraput, then settled in Balangir. Every year, we apply for her Indian citizenship, but every time, we hit a wall. Now, we don't know what to do,' he says, his voice filled with anxiety.
'The government's recent blanket order to deport Pakistanis may have its reasons,' he acknowledges, 'but what about someone who came here three to four decades ago, who has no one left across the border? Where is she supposed to go?'
'We have no ties left in Pakistan — not even distant relatives,' he adds. 'Our family is under tremendous mental trauma. We are desperate, lost, and praying for compassion.'