Latest news with #PakistaniHindus
Hindustan Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Who is Kashish Chaudhary? 1st Hindu woman assistant commissioner in Balochistan
At just 25 years of age, Kashish Chaudhary became the first woman from the minority community of Pakistani Hindus in Balochistan to be appointed as the Assistant Commissioner in the restive province. Chaudhary, a native of Chagai district's Noshki town, made history by achieving this feat. She cleared the Balochistan Public Service Commission (BPSC) examination, which is both a personal milestone and a symbol of hope for the nation's minority communities. Speaking to SAMAA news, Chaudhary said that it took three years of consistent studies, at least eight hours a day devoted to preparation, which led her to achieve this success. "Discipline, hard work, and the desire to contribute to society have driven me throughout this journey," she added. Kashish Chaudhary's father, Girdhari Lal, expressed his sense of pride over his daughter to the media. Lal, a mid-level trader, said, "It is a matter of great pride for me that my daughter has become an assistant commissioner due to her hard work and commitment." He further added that Chaudhary always dreamt of studying and doing something for women. Chaudhary and her father met Balochistan chief minister Sarfaraz Bugti in Quetta on Monday. She told the CM that she would work toward the empowerment of women and minorities, while also looking at the province's overall development. CM Bugti also said it was a matter of pride for the nation when minority community members get to key positions due to their hard work and effort. "Kashish is a symbol of pride for the nation and Balochistan," he added. Kashish Chaudhary has managed to make her mark and is being counted among the other women from the Hindu community who achieved notable success in male-dominated fields in Pakistan, news agency PTI reported. These women have fought and overcome many cultural, religious and social hurdles to get to such significant positions. Manesh Ropeta, in 2022, became the first Hindu woman to be appointed as the Superintendent of Police in Karachi, where she is still posted. A 35-year-old Pushpa Kumari Kohli is serving as a sub-inspector in Karachi and exuded confidence that Hindu women hold the tenacity and intelligence to reach the top. 'I also passed the Sindh police Public Services Examination. There are many more Hindu girls out there waiting to educate themselves and become something,' Kohli, who belongs to a scheduled caste, was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. Suman Pawan Bodani, a native of Sindh province's Shahdadkot, was first appointed as a civil judge in her hometown in 2019. Meanwhile, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a politician in Sindh, said he believes that young Hindu girls, with the backing of their families, have shown more leaning and initiative toward being educated and pursuing higher studies. 'Our young women are doing us proud. We have doctors, civil servants, police officers, etc in Sindh,' he said.
Hindustan Times
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Pakistani nationals on long-term visas asked to reapply by July 10
New Delhi: All Pakistani nationals, including Hindus, currently in India on long-term visas (LTVs) but who have not been granted Indian citizenship yet will have to apply afresh for the visa before July 10 or face cancellation, the Union home ministry said in an order dated April 28. Border Security Force stand guard at Attari-Wagah Integrated Check Post (ICP) in Amritsar. (HT PHOTO) That order essentially scrapped an exemption made on April 25 for Pakistani Hindus on LTVs, even as India said all other Pakistani citizens in India must leave the country by April 29. HT has seen a copy of the April 28 order that said: 'In exercise of the powers under section 3 (1) of the foreigners' act, 1946, and in continuation of this ministry's order dated April 25, it is stated that the long-term visa holders had been given exemption from revocation of their visas. Now, the government has decided that all such Pakistani nationals holding a long-term visa and who have not obtained an Indian citizenship, shall be required to apply afresh on the e-FRRO portal...' The application form for reapplying for LTV, the ministry said, will be available on the portal with effect from May 10, and till July 10. 'The LTV of any Pakistani national, who fails to reapply in the said period, shall be cancelled,' the order added. For reapplying for the LTV, the Pakistani citizens will have to provide documents including copy of their current valid LTV certificate, latest address with a copy of proof, details of profession/occupation and religion , and in the case of those who have applied for Indian citizenship, a copy of the application as well as latest photograph. The government has asked to reapply to make sure it has proper records of all who have LTVs (Pakistani Hindus and who are already here on LTV). Earlier, while announcing a series of measures in response to April 22 Pahalgam attack, in which 26 people were killed by Pakistan sponsored terrorists, the government asked all Pakistani nationals to return to their country. Union home minister Amit Shah also called up the chief ministers of all states and asked them to ensure that no Pakistani stays in India beyond the deadline set for leaving the country. Through its April 25 order, MHA suspended 14 visa categories out of 16 for Pakistanis. Only diplomatic/official visas and LTVs were allowed beyond April 29. The revoked visa categories included –– SAARC, visa on arrival, business, film, journalist, transit, medical (deadline ended on April 29), conference, mountaineering, student, visitor visa, group tourist visa, pilgrim visa and group pilgrim visa to minorities of Pakistan. However, the ministry of external affairs clarified that Pakistani Hindus with LTVs will be exempted. That has now changed. 'The latest order now nullifies this, which means everyone has to reapply for the LTV,' said an officer. 953 Pakistani citizens left India via Attari-Wagah border till May 2 while 1,841 Indians returned from Pakistan as tensions grow between the two countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to pursue the perpetrators and those part of the conspiracy to the ends of the Earth t, keeping Islamabad on the edge. Among a series of steps taken so far, the government has downgraded diplomatic ties with Pakistan, suspended the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), closed airspace for Pakistani airlines, snapped trade ties, and banned several Pakistani social media handles and websites.
The Hindu
04-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Moving from a minority to a majority
Warding off flies with one hand, and holding a weathered mobile phone in another, Kesari Bagri, 40, tries hard to keep her tears from brimming over. She is speaking to her ageing parents, both in their 70s, over a video call. They live in a village in Hyderabad division, Sindh, Pakistan; she is in one of the refugee camps in Rohini, north-west Delhi. Since the political escalation between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack in Kashmir that killed 26, Kesari has tried speaking to her parents every day over a call even if for a minute. She is worried about their future in a country where Islam is a state religion and Hindus, a religious minority. As per Pakistan's 2023 census, 3.8 million Hindus live there, up from 3.5 million in 2017, constituting 1.6% of the population, the Press Trust of India had reported in 2024. Each time Kesari disconnects the phone, she wonders whether it is the last time she speaks to them. She is one of the hundreds of Pakistani Hindus whose lives continue to move in a rhythm matching that of the improving or worsening relationship between the two neighbouring countries. 'When the government first said all those who hold Pakistani passports need to go back, we were nervous since nobody at the camp has got Indian citizenship yet (under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019),' says Kesari, whose camp has 300 people as per the camp head. Despite the escalations and the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) orders directing Pakistani nationals to leave the country by April 29 or face imprisonment for three years, the Pakistani Hindu community was assured that they would not be deported, she adds. Over the media accessed over their phones, they heard that those holding long-term visas (LTVs) could stay. The MHA also clarified that Hindus from Pakistan who had sent their applications for LTVs could stay on. The MHA's annual 2023-24 report says that 1,112 LTVs had been granted to members of minority communities from Pakistan that financial year. Hindu Singh Sodha, the president of the Seemant Lok Sangathan, a group that advocates for the rights of Pakistani minority migrants in India, says that there are 10,000 Pakistani Hindus whose LTV application is pending with the MHA for more than two years. A part of the majority Over the past couple of weeks, India and Pakistan have suspended ties, and India has expelled Pakistani diplomats. India banned the import of all goods originating in or transitioning through Pakistan. The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 was suspended and restrictions imposed on Pakistan's use of Indian airspace. No Pakistani mercantile ship is now allowed into Indian waters and no Indian ship will dock at a Pakistani port. Pakistan also halted all trade with India, closed its airspace to Indian aircraft and expelled diplomats. Kesari's husband, like many of those in the camp, is a farmer who cultivates wheat and vegetables like he did in Pakistan. Their three children study in a Delhi government school, where they say they faced no problem with admission. Recalling the days since the Pahalgam attack on April 22, Kesari says the fear of being deported was much less than the fear of her kin in Pakistan being harmed. 'Every time people call for a war between these two countries, I fear that I will never be able to see my parents again,' she says. Like many other Pakistani Hindus, Kesari's family too had decided to move to India for their children's future and for a better life. 'Being a religious minority in a country where your voice and pain do not matter causes a lot of mental anguish. When our relatives, who had moved to India since 2011, started telling us that crossing the border would help us, we put together every rupee to get our passports,' she says. Kesari and her husband, with their children, spent over ₹5 lakh in Indian currency to get their passports and visas and come to Delhi. By 2015, when they arrived, there were already over 500 Pakistani Hindus living in three refugee camps near north Delhi's Majnu Ka Tila, Signature Bridge and Rohini. In Majnu Ka Tila and Rohini, there are exposed brick structures for them to live in; at Signature Bridge, with 932 people, it's just bamboo and tarpaulin. The toilets are temporary and life seems makeshift. Except, these camps began to come into being since 2011. 'Our relatives here became our visa guarantors and after months of savings, selling our animals and a prolonged wait for visas, we finally made the move only with a few clothes,' she says. It has been 10 years now, but she has not been able to visit her parents in Pakistan yet. Choking on her words, she says that when people of her generation leave for India, they know that it is probably the last time they get to see their parents. 'To save the community from becoming extinct the people in their 30s have been fleeing Pakistan since 2010,' she says. While they crossed the border with starry eyes, Rama, 35, Kesari's sister-in-law, says nothing has changed for them apart from one factor. 'There we constantly feared being cornered for not following Islam. If anybody looted us, the police would not act. But apart from being surrounded mostly by Hindus here, what has changed?' she says. Pointing at kuccha roads in front of the cluster, she says the sewers are uncovered, there is dirt everywhere, flies swarm all around, and the youth have no jobs.' With an ironic smile, she says, 'We were poor there; we are poor here; only now we belong to the majority.' Arriving and staying Joining her, Bhagwan Dass, a 45-year-old Pakistani Hindu in the same camp, says the idea of moving to India was not their fathers'. 'Our grandfathers were the ones who saw the Partition, but neither they nor our fathers ever thought of moving to India. They had accepted their fate and despite being a religious minority knew that was their janmbhoomi (place of birth),' he says. The community started thinking about immigrating when senior Hindu leaders from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) reached out to them in person, assuring them that as Hindus they belong in 'Bharat', he adds. 'The first lot that migrated to India first came by applying for the teerth visa (to visit Hindu religious sites like Haridwar and Mathura). They never went back. Gradually they became guarantors for the next lot of us. That is how our relatives from Sindh have been coming to India,' says Bhagwan, who farms for a living. As he speaks, his voice fades as the volume of a news channel is raised in his neighbour's courtyard. Sitting on a khatiya (bed made of rope and bamboo), the neighbour intently listens to the news anchor telling the world about the escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan. As the anchor announces the closing of the Indian air space for Pakistani aircraft and firing along the Indo-Pak Line of Control, more neighbours huddle around the khatiya in the courtyard which many homes have access to. 'In our world, we are accustomed to monthly visits to cyber cafes for visa renewals. We have made peace with it as long as nobody asks us to go back,' says Bhagwan, echoing Kesari's fears about the safety of relatives in Pakistan. Bhagwan recalls how in 2019, after the Pulwama attack, he was not sure if his sisters and parents were even alive. 'For many days we did not hear from them because our calls were not getting through. We thought that the government there had hurt them, so we had started to accept that we would never hear their voices,' he says. He and the others at the camp refuse video bytes because they do not want to make relatives back in Pakistan vulnerable to attacks. The cost of war mongering In the camps across the Capital, the past week has been stressful as it has brought back difficult memories from the past, and the constant fear of technically being a 'Pakistani' national despite having the current regime's support. 'Many here don't have long-term visas. Some have applied and have not received it; some are yet to apply,' said Dharamveer Solanki, 55, a resident of the refugee camp at Majnu Ka Tila. On April 28, the Delhi police asked the heads of these camps for a list of those who live there, with details of name, age, parents' names, date of exit from Pakistan, passport and visa details. 'In our camp, 181 residents have received their Indian citizenship but 81 are waiting to get it (out of a total of 300),' says Dharamveer, who came from Sindh too. Residents of the camps say that they never felt like they were part of the mainstream in Pakistan. They didn't send their children to school fearing conversation, there were no formal jobs available to them and most lived in poverty. 'There too I did odd jobs, but we were often left without food some days,' says Satram, 40, who came to India two weeks ago. 'But here, I can at least make ends meet. We don't starve; we can eat at the gurudwara.' In Sindh too, Satram remembers sheltering in a local gurudwara. Hari Dass, 45, runs a kachori-sabzi stall near Signature Bridge and does odd jobs like transporting goods or working as a farm labourer to support his brother in Pakistan, so his brother can join him in India. 'Each person has to pay ₹50,000 as a bribe for a passport. Then, there's the wait for the visa that can take up to a year. All the struggle will now go to waste,' he says. Hari's brother and his family reached the Wagah border with their permits a day after the attack and were told they could not cross over. 'They were preparing to come to India and settle here, but they are not being allowed to cross over from Pakistan to India despite being Hindus,' he says, dejected. alisha.d@ Edited by Sunalini Mathew
Indian Express
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Gates closed at Attari-Wagah border as uncertainty grips those wanting to cross over
Uncertainty prevailed on both sides of the Attari-Wagah border Thursday as the gates at the Integrated Check Post (ICP) remained closed. No Pakistani citizen was permitted to cross over, nor did any Indian national return from the other side. This was despite the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) amending its earlier directive, which had ordered the closure of the border on May 1, and permitting Pakistani nationals to leave India via the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari until further notice. Both countries are yet to make a statement on those stranded on both sides of the border. So far, the ICP authorities have not given any clarity on their situation. India last week cancelled all short-term and special visas to Pakistan nationals in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, in which 26 people were killed. In response, Pakistan responded by suspending visas issued to Indian nationals. Since then, 787 Pakistan nationals who were in India crossed the border through the Attari ICP until Wednesday. Notably, on Wednesday, over 300 people had successfully crossed the border in both directions. Despite the gate closure, over 40 Pakistani nationals gathered at the border Thursday, hoping to return to their country. They had been residing in various states in India. Two such women, Saida Sameer Fatima and Saida Safeer Fatima from Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri, came to India in 1983. Their father passed away in Pakistan in 1980, and they have had no links to the country since then. They said that despite having lived their entire lives in India, they are being forcibly expelled. Their relative Murawat Hussain said they have no family in Pakistan and do not wish to leave India. Another woman from Karachi is also facing expulsion but refuses to return without her child, who holds an Indian passport. In tears, she said she had appealed to be allowed to stay with her child or to return along with them. Also, 16 Pakistani Hindus who had visited Haridwar for the last rites of their relatives are stranded at the border. They reportedly arrived late due to vehicle trouble and are now waiting for clearance.
The Print
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Pakistani nationals in India get relief as MHA expands exemption list, eases deportation threat
The Ministry of External Affairs had already clarified Thursday that LTVS issued to Pakistani Hindus were to remain valid even as all visas issued to Pakistani nationals were set to be revoked by 29 April at the latest. The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Rajasthan's Jodhpur has added more exemptions, such as Pakistani women who are married to Indian men and living on LTVs, as well as opened windows to those whose Pakistani passports have expired. New Delhi: In a relief to Pakistani nationals living in India for a long time and who were facing inevitable deportation, the Ministry of Home Affairs has expanded the exemptions beyond the group of Long Term Visas (LTV) holders and included those whose applications for such visas are pending or are eligible for it. The Jodhpur FRRO said that it has approved the LTVs of 362 Pakistani nationals in 3 days till Monday. Hundreds of migrants from Pakistan, especially Hindus, are living in clusters in Jodhpur. The exemptions were announced around 5 days after the central government revoked all visas issued to Pakistani nationals and set 27 April as the cancellation date for standard visas. People with medical visas were asked to leave the country by 29 April, when their visas expired. The decision to revoke visas was among the list of diplomatic measures taken by New Delhi in the wake of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, where 25 Indian nationals and one Nepalese citizen were shot dead. The MEA had also advised Pakistani nationals currently in India to leave the country before their amended visas expire. Indian citizens have been strongly advised to avoid travelling to Pakistan. Those currently in Pakistan are urged to return to India at the earliest opportunity. While the MEA had already clarified that LTVs issued to Pakistani Hindus were to remain valid even in case of suspension of visas for Pakistani nationals, the latest exemption announced by Jodhpur FRRO has extended the categories to include even those who are eligible for it or those whose applications are under consideration. In a press note, the FRRO Jodhpur has said that Pakistani nationals living in Jodhpur, whose LTVs have expired should approach its office to renew them immediately. Additionally, Pakistani immigrants whose applications for LTVs are pending for approval before FRRO have also been exempted from deportation, the FRRO Jodhpur said. The FRRO also urged those who are eligible to apply for LTVs and are yet to apply for it to approach its office immediately with all relevant documents. Additionally, those whose Pakistani passports have expired should have also been asked to reach out immediately to the FRRO to seek further instructions from the MHA and the MEA. Among other key exemptions, the MHA has excluded women of Pakistani origin who are married to Indian men and are living on LTVs from the list of Pakistani nationals set to be deported. The FRRO further urged those who have secured Indian citizenship to submit their proof of citizenship to its office for updating of records. 'Registration and LTV of Pakistani citizens by the Foreign Registration Officer Office, Jodhpur City. A special campaign has been launched to receive applications, allowing for the quick processing of all Pakistani citizens' applications and providing relief to them. LTV of 362 Pakistani citizens approved in the last 3 days. The applications have been accepted and registered; the process is ongoing,' the FRRO Jodhpur said in a press statement. (Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri) Also read: Pahalgam attack aftermath: Gurez & Machil among over 80 tourist spots closed for visitors in Kashmir
