Latest news with #LongTermVisa
News18
05-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
'Reapply Or Leave': India Issues Fresh Directive For Pakistanis On Long-Term Visa
Last Updated: The order also states that applicants must submit the following documents: a copy of their valid Long Term Visa certificate Pakistani nationals living in India on Long Term Visas (LTVs) who have not obtained Indian citizenship have been asked to reapply for their visas. In its order, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated that the window to reapply for LTVs is from May 10 to July 10. Any Pakistani national who fails to reapply within this period will have their LTV cancelled, according to the MHA order. In a series of stern measures against Pakistan, a day after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people, the Government of India announced that Pakistani nationals would not be allowed to travel to India, and those currently in the country on short-term visas must leave within 48 hours. Now, in a fresh directive, the Indian government has made it clear that those on LTVs will also be required to reapply. This move signals the government's intent to reconsider whether such visas should be extended or reissued. The MHA order reads, 'The Government has decided that all Pakistani nationals holding a Long Term Visa and who have not obtained Indian citizenship, shall be required to apply afresh." The order also states that applicants must submit the following documents: a copy of their valid Long Term Visa certificate, a recent photograph, address proof, details of their profession and religion, and a copy of their application if they have applied for Indian citizenship. Furthermore, the order mentions that the application form for reapplying for a Long Term Visa will be available on the portal [ starting May 10, 2025, and will remain open until July 10, 2025. 'The Long Term Visa of any Pakistani national, who fails to reapply in the said period, shall be cancelled," the order stated. Earlier, following the barbaric attack in Pahalgam, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had advised Indian nationals in Pakistan to return at the earliest. An MEA statement had said, 'All Pakistani nationals currently in India must leave India before the expiry of visas, as now amended. Indian nationals are strongly advised to avoid travelling to Pakistan. Those Indian nationals currently in Pakistan are also advised to return to India at the earliest." India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri also briefed the press after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting, stating that Pakistani nationals would no longer be permitted to travel to India under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme. Any SPES visas issued in the past to Pakistani nationals are now deemed cancelled. He further added that any Pakistani national currently in India under a SPES visa has 48 hours to leave the country. Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from politics to crime and society. Stay informed with the latest India news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! First Published: May 05, 2025, 22:23 IST
The Print
02-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Lawyer representing CRPF constable's Pakistani wife in deportation case is an ‘unfazed' BJP functionary
'I defended the law declared 25 April by the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) that people on a Long Term Visa (LTV) won't be deported to Pakistan. Menal Khan, the wife of CRPF constable (Munir Khan), had already given an interview for the LTV and the 51-day period after which LTV is deemed to be approved had passed on 4 April,' Sharma told ThePrint. Known as an advocate who raises issues concerning the Hindus in Jammu, Sharma asserts that opposition to Muslim appeasement is not selective application of the law, based on the religion of the beneficiary. Instead, he says, that Muslim appeasement can only be opposed by supporting equal application of the law of the land. New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary and advocate Ankur Sharma is unperturbed by 'amateurish' criticism he faces for legally aiding the Pakistani wife of a CRPF constable, insisting that he always supports the rule of law above everything and will continue to do so. On Thursday, the Jammy and Kashmir High Court granted interim relief to Menal, who was at the Wagah border for deportation. She had entered India on 28 February on a visitor's visa which expired on 22 March. Menal and Munir had married in May last year through WhatsApp video call, according to the findings of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which has initiated department action against its personnel. Sharma is Menal's lawyer in the J&K High Court where her husband moved a writ petition challenging deportation notice issued by the local tehsildar. The people associated with the BJP or any critique on social media for representing Menal are criticising the law of the land decided by the MHA, he says. 'These criticisms are amateurish. I don't want to comment much on it. They are not criticising me for representing her in court. By criticising me, they are criticising the MHA,' Sharma tells ThePrint. 'This is not the only case I have fought in court. I have also fought for Jitendra Narayan Tyagi in the Jammu & Kashmir High Court and secured stay on the case filed for his alleged remarks against Islam. I have always supported the rule of law above everything and will continue to do so. I have opposed Muslim appeasement, and, hence, I was on the hit list of terrorist organisation Hizbul Mujahideen, but I will also not support selective application of law based on religion of the beneficiary,' he adds. Tyagi aka Wasim Rizvi, the former chairman of Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board, had faced charges for allegedly making disrespectful remarks about Islam and Prophet Muhammad. Also Read: ED director concedes PMLA cases piling up for yrs, weeks after CBI chief made similar admission Poster boy of Jammu's far-Right Hailing from Jammu's Kathua district, Sharma went on to pursue LLB from Faculty of Law, Delhi University before he started his law practice at the J&K HC, according to information available on the website of Ekam Sanatan Bharat. He first came into prominence in 2014, challenging the constitutional validity of Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, popularly known as 'Roshni Act'. Sharma had alleged that the policy introduced by the Congress government led by Ghulam Nabi Azad caused a loss of Rs 25,000 crore to the exchequer. Similarly, Sharma made news when he moved the J&K HC to transfer the Kathua rape and muder case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and later went on to represent on the accused persons alleging conspiracy of 'jihadis to defame Hindus'. He later founded an outfit named IkkJutt Jammu, which formally took political shape in November, 2020 and went on to capture limelight by demanding a separate Jammu state and division of Kashmir into two Union Territories, including one exclusively for Kashmiri Pandits. Sh. @JPNadda welcomes Sh. Ankur Sharma to BJP Jammu, Sept 22: The BJP on Sunday got a boost after the Ekam Snatan Bharat Dal, National President, Sh. Ankur Sharma, Joined the party and was welcomed into the party fold by BJP National President, Sh. JP Nadda. BJP Working… — BJP Jammu & Kashmir (@BJP4JnK) September 22, 2024 The Ikkjutt Jammu came to be later known as Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal. Last year, Sharma merged Ekam Sanatan Bharat with the BJP ahead of the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. At the time of Sharma's joining the party, BJP national president had hailed him as a 'nationalist' who has always stood for the cause of Jammu and Kashmir. 'Joining of Sh. Ankur Sharma in BJP is in the interest of J&K and will also strengthen BJP which is committed to the welfare, development and peace of J&K,' the party's UT unit had quoted Nadda as saying. (Edited by Tony Rai) Also Read: After Pahalgam widow's message against hate, an online army turns on its poster child for justice
The Hindu
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
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. Also Read | Pahalgam terror attack: Centre exempts many more from repatriation to Pakistan '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. Also Read | Pahalgam terror attack: 22-year-old India-Pakistan ceasefire pact hangs by a thread as armies exchange fire for 4th day in J&K '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.
New Indian Express
29-04-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Uncertainty surrounds fate of nine Pakistani children in Madhya Pradesh as Centre revokes visas
BHOPAL: The fate of nine children born to Pakistani fathers and Indian mothers in Madhya Pradesh hangs in the balance after the Centre revoked 14 visa categories for Pakistani nationals. The state government has sought central guidance on the children's status, as they currently reside with their mothers across three cities in the state. The nine children, aged between one and 11 years, are currently living with their Indian mothers across Madhya Pradesh. Four children aged 4 to 7 are in Indore, three aged 1 to 11 are in Jabalpur, and two aged 5 and 6 are in Bhopal. In Jabalpur, three kids, the eldest of them being an 11-year-old girl and the youngest being her one-year-old brother, had to come to India with their mother on short term visas last month, as their father was jobless in Pakistan for a long time, forcing mother to come to her parents' place. 'In total there were 14 Pakistani nationals in MP, including the nine children with their Indian mothers in Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur. Also, a young man (who is from the Sindhi community) too was on short term visa in Bhopal and had applied for a long-term visa, just a few hours before the central government ordered the revocation of 14 categories of visas and asked those Pakistani nationals to leave India by April 27. We've sought the central government's advice and guidance in all these cases of the 10 Pakistani nationals, including the nine kids,' a senior state police officer told TNIE on Tuesday. Out of the 14 Pakistani nationals who had to leave the country by April 27, three have already left and crossed the international border into Pakistan. In one case of a six-year-old kid who had come with their Indian mother to maternal grandparents' place in Indore, the Indian national mother has left with the Pakistani national kid and the matter of both going to Pakistan is reportedly being looked into by the Foreigners Registration Office in Delhi. The 14 categories of visas were revoked by the central government on April 25 in the wake of the ghastly April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and those Pakistani nationals who were in India on such visas were asked to leave the country by April 27. In a communication to all the state governments, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), however, had added that the order will not apply to Long Term Visa (LTV) holders, besides diplomatic and official visa holder Pakistani nationals.
News18
29-04-2025
- Politics
- News18
Indian Mothers, Pakistani Fathers: MP Officials Stumped Over Custody Of 9 Minors
The nine children are from various districts: three in Jabalpur, four in Indore, and two in Bhopal. All have Indian mothers and Pakistani fathers, officials have confirmed In the wake of a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, the Indian government has suspended visas for Pakistani nationals and has ordered them to leave the country. This directive has reportedly raised concerns regarding nine minor children in Madhya Pradesh. According to reports, the authorities are now faced with the dilemma of whether these children should stay in India with their mother or go to Pakistan with their father. Guidance has been sought from the Union Home Ministry to resolve this issue. The nine children in question are spread across different districts: three in Jabalpur, four in Indore, and two in Bhopal. In each case, the mother is Indian, while the father is Pakistani. The police administration has requested guidance from both the Madhya Pradesh government and the Home Ministry regarding the children's status. Additionally, officials are addressing the situation of a Pakistani man who applied for a Long Term Visa (LTV) in Bhopal on April 25, just before the Union government's order. 'We have sought advice from the Centre regarding the nine children born to Indian mothers and Pakistani fathers. Four of these children are in Indore, three are in Jabalpur, and two are in Bhopal. We have also requested guidance on the individual who applied for an LTV," an official was quoted as saying by News18 Hindi. The deadline for Pakistani citizens to leave India was set by the Government of India on April 25. According to the directive, holders of SAARC visas and other short-term visas (including visa on arrival, business, journalist, and tourist visas) were required to exit the country by April 26. Medical visa holders were given until April 29 to leave. The central government has instructed Chief Ministers and state officials to ensure that no Pakistani citizen remains in India beyond the specified deadlines. Those who overstay may face arrest, prosecution, imprisonment for up to three years, and fines up to Rs 3 lakh. According to reports, exemptions are made for holders of long-term visas, diplomatic, or official visas. Additionally, Pakistani Hindu refugees escaping religious persecution are not required to return. First Published:
