05-05-2025
It is a restricted release for members of part-Pakistani family staying in Rajkot
A family residing in Lodhika village, about 31 km from Rajkot city, whose three of six members — identified as Pakistan nationals — were detained by Rajkot Rural Police police for overstaying their visa, were sent back to their home Saturday night, with a caveat — they would stay within the limits of Rajkot district.
Three generations of the Tataria family are awaiting a decision on their fate after the police found that 50-year-old Rizwana Tataria, wife of Munaf Ibrahim Tataria, who had entered India on July 30, 1999, had overstayed her visa by 26 years. Rizwana, originally a resident of Karachi's Lyari town, had married Munaf, an Indian national, in 1992 when he had gone to Pakistan on a work permit. Their son Zeeshan was born in Pakistan. While coming to India, Rizwana had brought her then five-year-old son along with her.
Today, Zeeshan, who has a Pakistan passport, at the age of 29, is not just married to an Indian woman, but also has a two-year-old son who has been deemed a Pakistan national owing to the nationality of his father. However, Zeeshan's sibling, Rizwana's other child, a 23-year-old daughter named Rumeza, has been deemed an Indian citizen as per laws regulating citizenship in India.
Conditions apply
On Friday evening, Rizwana, Zeeshan and his son were detained by the Lodhika police for almost 24 hours. Inspector IM Sarvaiya on Monday confirmed that the trio had been allowed to temporarily return to their home in Lodhika village pending a decision — to be taken by the Gujarat Home Department — on whether they are to be deported or not.
While at the police station, the 2-year-old child's Indian mother was allowed to stay with him. They had not been placed in lockup but made to sit inside the police station premises as is the norm in places where a notified foreigner detention centre is unavailable and the detainees don't have any criminal antecedent.
Notably, Rajkot does not have a Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC) where foreign nationals, pending deportation, can be detained. The two JICs in Gujarat are located in Bhuj, Kutch, and in Ahmedabad.
The Indian Express also spoke to the family members who confirmed that the trio had been allowed to return home with restrictions.
Confirming the same, Police Inspector Sarvaiya told the Indian Express, 'We allowed the three detained Pakistan nationals to return to their home in Lodhika pending a decision from the Home Department regarding their status. They have been released on the condition that they do not leave the boundary of Rajkot district as per the restriction order issued by the Superintendent of Police.'
Born 20 years apart: One deemed Indian, the other, Pakistani
Notably, two different regulations apply to the two members of the same family who were born in India, 20 years apart. While Zeeshan's sister Rumeza, born in 2002, is considered an Indian, Zeeshan's son, born in 2022, has been deemed a Pakistan national. This is due to the watershed moment that was the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2003.
Explaining the same, SP Himkar Singh of Rajkot Rural Police told The Indian Express : 'In 2003, there was an amendment in the citizenship law that a person would be Indian by birth when born on Indian soil, whose one parent is Indian and the other parent is a foreigner but not an illegal immigrant. So, the two-year-old child cannot be an Indian because his father Zeeshan, was an illegal immigrant at the time of his birth in 2022.'
However, this amendment does not apply to Rumeza. The SP said, 'Rumeza was also born in India to one Indian parent and one illegal immigrant (Rizwana) but the amendment does not apply to her because she was born in 2002, which is two years before the law came into effect, as it (the law) is applicable only to those born after December 3, 2004.'
