Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir<\/strong> \u2013 The silence of a narrow alley in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-administered Kashmir, is broken by the rehearsed beckoning of street vendors and the restless cries of two little children.<\/p>\n \u201cAuntie, please take me to my mother; the police took her away,\u201d shouts three-year-old Hussein, as he and his sister Noorie, a year younger than him, cling to the window of their one-room house, their faces pressed against rusted iron bars.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Their father, Majid*, says the two have been calling out like that to almost every passer-by since their mother, Samina*, a Pakistani national, was forcibly taken away by Indian authorities and deported more than seven months ago.<\/p>\n The family\u2019s ordeal began a week after half a dozen gunmen, a couple of them alleged to be Pakistani nationals, stormed a scenic tourist spot in Indian-administered Kashmir\u2019s Pahalgam area and shot 26 people dead on April 22, 2025 in one of the worst attacks in the disputed region.<\/p>\n The Muslim-majority region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, though the nuclear-armed neighbours claim it in full, while regional superpower China also controls a sliver of Kashmir\u2019s land. Since India\u2019s independence from British rule and its partition to create the state of Pakistan in 1947, the two countries have fought two of their three full-scale wars over Kashmir.<\/p>\n In the late 1980s, an armed rebellion against New Delhi\u2019s rule erupted on the Indian side, which has since claimed tens of thousands of lives, most of them civilians. The rebellion saw the deployment of nearly a million Indian soldiers, making it one of the world\u2019s most militarised regions. The rebels aim to either carve an independent nation out of Kashmir or merge the region with Muslim-majority Pakistan.<\/p>\n The anti-India sentiments in Kashmir intensified in 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Hindu majoritarian government scrapped a law that granted the region partial autonomy in matters of land ownership and livelihoods, and split it into two \u201cunion territories\u201d to be directly governed by New Delhi. Since then, suspected Kashmiri rebels have launched several attacks against Indian security forces and government employees. India accuses Pakistan of training and financing the rebels, but Islamabad dismisses the charge, claiming it only provides diplomatic backing to Kashmir\u2019s struggle.<\/p>\n India blamed Pakistan for the Pahalgam attack as well, and swiftly moved to downgrade all diplomatic ties, suspend bilateral trade, and place a key water treaty in abeyance. Two weeks after the killings, in early May, India and Pakistan engaged in an intense four-day air war, each striking the other\u2019s military bases. Dozens of people were killed on both sides \u2014 India insists it only hit \u201cterrorists\u201d in Pakistan, while Islamabad said civilians were principally the victims \u2014 before the neighbours agreed to a ceasefire.<\/p>\n But seven months later, the pause in fighting has meant little for hundreds of families, like Majid\u2019s and Samina\u2019s, that were broken apart by one of India\u2019s moves.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, India revoked all visas issued to Pakistani citizens residing in India, including medical and diplomatic visas, giving them an April 29, 2025 deadline to leave the country, and closing the Attari-Wagah border in Punjab province\u2019s Amritsar district on May 1.<\/p>\n Nearly 800 Pakistanis \u2013 many of them married to Indian nationals in Kashmir and other parts of India \u2013 were deported.<\/p>\n With authorities providing no clarity on whether those families will ever be reunited, the wait drags on for relatives on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n Majid married Samina, his 38-year-old Pakistani cousin, in 2018.<\/p>\n Despite tense relations between their countries, their marriage was not especially rare. When millions of Muslims moved to a newly-created Pakistan in 1947 \u2013 as did Hindus to India \u2013 many left behind relatives on both sides of the border. Over the years, these blood ties gave rise to cross-border marriages between citizens of the two countries.<\/p>\n But on April 28, Samina was summoned to the local police station in Srinagar\u2019s Dalgate area. Noorie and Hussein slept on their laps as the couple met the police officer. When the children woke up, they realised their father had brought them back home, their mother no longer around.<\/p>\n Samina was detained at the police station and informed that she would be deported to Pakistan \u2014 she is originally from Lahore \u2014 the next day.<\/p>\n Sitting quietly in a dimly lit room that served as a bedroom and kitchen, Majid said he is still struggling to process the events that turned his life upside down.<\/p>\n He used to wait tables at a local restaurant and earned about $70 a month. But since his wife was taken away, he has not been able to leave his little children alone. He is now jobless.<\/p>\n \u201cI have not slept properly for six months now. My whole time is spent taking care of the children. I cannot think about doing anything else,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Confined to his room, Majid says he is unable to go out even to buy groceries. \u201cSometimes, I think of ending my life,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I stop myself, wondering who would take care of them when I am gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Majid\u2019s children, Hussein and Noorie, also do not know when they will be able to see their mother.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sudden separation from Samina has traumatised them. They call out to their mother in sleep,\u201d Majid told Al Jazeera as he made a futile attempt to distract his children by showing them cartoons on his mobile phone.<\/p>\n \u201cAll they know is that the police took her away. Whenever they see any police or army officer, they ask them to bring their mother back.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, forcibly separated from her children, Samina is struggling with health issues in Pakistan. Her blood pressure is unstable due to stress. \u201cShe gets hospitalised every now and then. Her blood pressure isn\u2019t normalising,\u201d said Majid.<\/p>\n When asked about the deportations, Shazia Ilmi, spokeswoman for India\u2019s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), suggested that the moves were driven by national security concerns. Those deported were Pakistani nationals, she emphasised, and often were \u201cmarried to those who have been found involved in terrorism and activities that are antinational\u201d, she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cSo this cannot become a way for Pakistani nationals to marry into India and support such activities. Why should India have Pakistani nationals?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n When pressed to present evidence in support of her allegation that deportees were often married to those involved in \u201cterrorism\u201d, Ilmi accused Al Jazeera\u00a0of having a \u201cdubious agenda\u201d. \u201cI think you have a nasty agenda to find things against India and the Indian government, and it will not work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Muhammad Shehbaz is a 32-year-old resident of Daryaganj, a densely populated neighbourhood of what is called Old Delhi. In 2014, he married his maternal cousin from Pakistan, 27-year-old Erum. Since then, Erum had been living in India on a long-term visa until she travelled to Pakistan to introduce their three-year-old son, Almeer, to her family.<\/p>\n That was in March 2020 \u2013 just 10 days before a lockdown and travel restrictions were imposed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Erum was forced to extend her stay in Pakistan, during which her Indian visa expired.<\/p>\n After the lockdown was lifted, Shehbaz tried hard to secure another Indian visa so that Erum could return. After five years of repeated rejections, she was finally granted one in April this year. After more than five years of separation, an elated Shehbaz was finally going to be reunited with his family.<\/p>\n Erum reached New Delhi on April 17. Twelve days later, the Pahalgam attack happened. She was deported back to Pakistan on April 29.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter so many years of separation, hard work and longing, she had finally come home. My world had lit up, and I forgot everything. And then, in the blink of an eye, it all collapsed again. She was taken away, leaving me vulnerable and drowning in despair,\u201d Shehbaz told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the police came to our home and informed us about Erum\u2019s deportation, I became numb. My son was crying inconsolably. The struggles I faced all these years to reunite my family are beyond words. And now, it feels like it was all in vain.\u201d<\/p>\n Almeer, now nine, first grew up for years without his father and has now been torn away from his mother. Shehbaz, who runs a small jewellery business, is worried about his future.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has grown frail and quiet, not expressing much, but I can see he is shattered inside,\u201d Shehbaz told Al Jazeera. \u201cCaught in the animosity between the two countries, why are ordinary citizens pushed to the wall? What is our fault?\u201d<\/p>\n Back in Indian-administered Kashmir, Fazl\u2011u\u2011Rehman, 62, does not know if he might be able to see his wife, Parveena, who was deported in April to Pakistan, a country she had not seen in more than four decades.<\/p>\n Parveena, 65, was born in Pakistan\u2019s Karachi city. But she never went back after marrying Rehman in 1982, as she built a life with her husband and children in Baramulla district.<\/p>\n Rehman now fears he may die without seeing her.\u00a0\u201cOur home has been divided. Everything is in ruins. I don\u2019t know how many years I will live,\u201d he told Al Jazeera, his voice choking.<\/p>\n Rehman and Parveena have two daughters \u2013 the elder one, Afreen, is married, while Soliha, 27, is at home, looking after her ageing parents while also pursuing a master\u2019s degree in political science.<\/p>\n \u201cI missed my second semester mid-term exams in July while managing the household responsibilities alone,\u201d she told Al Jazeera. \u201cI have to do it all alone \u2013 getting medicines, groceries and other household chores. Left with no option, I had to sacrifice my education.\u201d<\/p>\n Soliha said her mother has been undergoing treatment for heart disease in Kashmir. But she has no means to continue her treatment in Pakistan, where she has no immediate relatives or financial support. She said her mother lives in Karachi with a distant relative, who is paralysed.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no one to look after her. If anything happens to my mother there, the Indian government would be responsible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone else committed the crime, why are we being punished for it? My education and career are at stake. I am facing mental health issues because of my mother\u2019s deportation.\u201d<\/p>\n Her father, Rehman, intervened. \u201cThere are 700,000 to 800,000 armed forces in Kashmir. If they couldn\u2019t prevent the [Pahalgam] attack, how are civilians being held responsible for it?\u201d he asked, furiously.<\/p>\n Parveen urged the government to \u201cstop punishing your own citizens\u201d and demanded the return of their loved ones.<\/p>\n Abdullah* says he has been forced to rebuild his life that fell apart after his wife, Tamarah*, 25, was deported on April 29. He says his twin toddlers \u2013 Ayan and Atif, just 18 months old \u2013 no longer play, laugh, or eat as they once did. One of the twins was still breastfeeding when Tamarah was deported.<\/p>\n Abdullah, a 38-year-old public bank manager in Kashmir\u2019s Kupwara district, married Tamarah in 2018. As she was driven to the Attari-Wagah border for deportation, Abdullah took his children and followed the police van in his car all the way from Kupwara to Amritsar, a distance of more than 500km (324 miles).<\/p>\n \u201cI cried on the way, pleading helplessly with the police to at least let the children see their mother one last time,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. \u201cBut they didn\u2019t even allow us a proper goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n The first two months were \u201cnothing short of hell\u201d for the children.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the sudden separation from their mother, their health began to deteriorate. They suffered frequent fevers and vomiting,\u201d he said, adding that he has barely attended office in the past six months, with one or the other child needing hospitalisation.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything is disrupted. Life has turned upside down. I have never felt so helpless in my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Abdullah said even lawyers refused to take up the case of his children, separated from their mother. He said the lawyers said no legal action could proceed without permission from the federal Ministry of Home Affairs. In desperation, Abdullah said he wrote to Prime Minister Modi and other authorities in New Delhi and Kashmir, but received no response.<\/p>\n Human rights activists say there is no justification for penalising innocent civilians due to the tensions between India and Pakistan.<\/p>\n \u201cOrdinary people hold no enmity towards each other. Why should they suffer because of political or diplomatic conflicts?\u201d said Shabnam Hashmi, a New Delhi-based activist. \u201cIn any conflict, civilians must never be the casualties. To separate a child from their mother is cruel, traumatic, and utterly inhuman \u2013 a clear violation of human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Waheed Para, a Kashmiri legislator from the Peoples Democratic Party, said the deportation of Pakistani nationals is unjust and unfortunate.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter Kashmir\u2019s conversion into a union territory, our ability to influence or resolve such issues has been severely limited. We can raise our voices and try to intervene, but we remain largely powerless in the face of decisions made elsewhere,\u201d he told Al Jazeera, referring to the federal government in New Delhi.<\/p>\n \u201cIn cross-border shelling, civilians lose lives and homes. Unfortunately, innocent citizens, children, and women continue to be the casualties of a geopolitical issue between India and Pakistan,\u201d Para added.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera reached out to the Ministry of Home Affairs for their response, but did not receive any reply.<\/p>\n Colin Gonsalves, Supreme Court lawyer and rights activist, said the deportation of Pakistani nationals has no legitimate connection to the Pahalgam attack.<\/p>\n \u201cLinking them to Pahalgam [attack] is simply an excuse and a deeply flawed one \u2026 The government may claim it is a fallout of Pahalgam, but that claim is not only misleading, it\u2019s dangerous,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were deported simply because they are Pakistanis and Muslims \u2013 a clear reflection of a bias against both.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in Kupwara, Abdullah wipes the tears rolling down his cheeks, struggling to speak as he recollects the months since his wife Tamarah was deported.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the Indian government did to us is no different from what the attackers did in Pahalgam. They destroyed our families and homes too,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy are our innocent children being punished? What did they do?\u201d<\/p>\n *Names changed to protect their identities over fears of government reprisal.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir \u2013 The silence of a narrow alley in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-administered Kashmir, is broken by the rehearsed beckoning of street vendors and the restless cries of two little children. \u201cAuntie, please take me to my mother; the police took her away,\u201d shouts three-year-old Hussein, as he and his sister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018I think of ending my life\u2019<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"