30-04-2025
Despite High Court order, J&K policeman and eight siblings shifted to Punjab for repatriation to Pakistan
In spite of a Jammu and Kashmir High Court order, a family of nine, including a policeman, were rounded up in J&K's Poonch and shifted to Punjab for repatriation to Pakistan on Wednesday (April 30, 2025). The move comes at a time of looming uncertainty over the hundreds of women from Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) who have married residents of J&K.
Police constable Ifthikar Ali, his three brothers and five sisters, were rounded up by the J&K police and shifted to Punjab, according to Mr. Ali's wife. 'I have three kids and their father has been taken away to be sent to Pakistan. He has worked in the J&K Police for 26 years. How did he become a Pakistani?' she said.
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'No help from DC, SSP'
The family on Tuesday (April 29, 2025) approached the J&K High Court, which directed that the petitioners 'should not be asked or forced to leave J&K'. In his order, Justice Rahul Bharti said: 'Deputy Commissioner, Poonch, is directed to come forward with furnishing of an affidavit with respect to the status of property holding if any by the petitioners in their own name and right, or by reference to their father Faqur Din, in reference to Mauza Salwah tehsil Mendhar district Poonch.'
Mrs. Ali said she and her family members had tried to approach both the Deputy Commissioner (DC) and the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) after the court order. 'The DC says the SSP will help and the SSP says the DC will help. We fail to understand why my husband was shifted in spite of the court order,' she said.
In a separate case, two sisters aged 66 and 60 were rounded up for repatriation to Pakistan after 43 years of residence in Rajouri's Thanamandi. 'My mother came to J&K in 1983 along with my grandmother and aunt. At this age, where will they survive in Pakistan? We have no relatives there,' said the 66-year-old woman's son.
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'No law against cross-border marriage'
One official figure suggested that over 60 women married to former militants were rounded up for deportation through the Attari-Wagah border. However, Pakistan on Wednesday refused to allow entry to such women.
'We were never allowed to cross the border on Wednesday. Those who have married should have been allowed to stay. Is marrying an Indian a joke? Let there be a law that Pakistani women cannot marry Indian men. Till such a law is not there, we should be allowed to stay. I felt like a criminal when we were rounded up,' said Minal Khan, a Pakistan national who married Munir Khan, a CRPF jawan from Jammu's Gharota, in March this year.
'I had already applied for the Long Term Visa. In spite of that, I was being repatriated. We were pained by the Pahalgam attack. What is the sin of children whose parents are being repatriated,' she asked.
