Pakistani Wives In Indian Kashmir: Deport Us Or Grant Citizenship

Misbah and Gulnaz with their children. Photo by Zaffar Iqbal

SRINAGAR, Jammu-Kashmir— In the early ’90s, dozens of Kashmiri men crossed into Pakistan-administered Kashmir, or PAK, for arms training to fight against Indian rule in Indian-administered Kashmir. Some married there and didn’t return. But the Pakistani wives of former militants who returned to Indian-administered Kashmir after the announcement of an amnesty policy in 2010 have been demanding that they must be either deported or given Indian citizenship. 

India claims Jammu-Kashmir, including PAK, is Indian territory. But women from PAK are not entitled to Indian citizenship. The Citizenship Amendment Act passed in 2019 fast-tracks Indian citizenship for non-Muslim persecuted minorities but does not apply to Muslims or women who married Indian citizens. 

Gulnaz, a mother of two who goes by one name, talks to her family in PAK everyday on video calls, hoping that one day she can meet them in person. She has lived on the Indian side of Kashmir for more than a decade. Her elderly mother has become ill, but if she enters Pakistan, she will not be allowed to return home to India.

“My family in PAK called to give me a false notion that my mother was well,” Gulnaz said. “But, when I insisted on talking with her, they told me that she was admitted to a hospital. For three days she had been talking about me and praying for my return. My father died two years ago carrying a similar wish. When he was alive, he would often call me to ask about my well-being and return. What sin are we punished for?”

In 2010, the Jammu-Kashmir government announced an amnesty policy for Kashmiris who crossed the border for arms training to Pakistan between 1989 and 2009. Returning militants with their wives and children were allowed to enter India through the border crossing at Wagah and the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. However, most avoided those routes and instead came through Nepal. In 2017, the Jammu-Kashmir government said 377 militants and their 864 dependents returned to India under the program. None had used the designated routes.

Kashmir had acceded to India at the time of India’s independence in 1947 rather than merging with a Muslim Pakistan under a constitutional provision, Article 370, which allowed semi-autonomous rule in Kashmir. The region of Jammu-Kashmir administered by India is 68.3% Muslim, 30% Hindu, 2% Sikh and 1% Buddhist.  

More than 47,000 people have been killed in conflict since the 1990s, mainly between Indian security forces and Kashmiri militant separatists. Article 370 helped to preserve Kashmir’s identity and Muslim majority character by barring outsiders from buying land and applying for government jobs to prevent demographic changes. After its revocation on August 5, 2019, a new domicile law was brought in, opening the region for outsiders to settle in Jammu-Kashmir.

Misbah, who goes by one name, came to India with her husband through the amnesty program, but she never thought this would be a permanent displacement. For the past 12 years, she has tried to arrange a visit to her family in PAK, but the Indian government has not allowed her to cross the border. The rehabilitation policy wasn’t thought through, she said, leaving women like her hopeless and unsure about their future. 

“Women like me who returned to Kashmir from Pakistan with their husbands and families after the rehabilitation policy was announced are living here for 10 to 15 years without getting Indian citizenship,” Misbah said. “We are not accepted here, nor does the government allow us to go back. Locals are scared of giving us jobs or keeping contact with us. They make WhatsApp calls and avoid making regular phone calls to us.

“We are facing a lot of difficulties. Away from our families and our country, we feel we have destroyed our lives after falling to the fake promises of the Indian government. Please send us back, we are appealing.”

Saira Javed runs a boutique at Kupwara in Kashmir, where she employees four women from PAK. Before the amnesty program was announced, she came with her husband and two daughters to India in 2007 through the Wagah border on valid travel documents that granted her permission only to go to New Delhi. But she said after her arrival in India, her in-laws took away her passport and tore it up, ending any possibility of her going back to PAK.

In 2007, police filed a first information report against the couple under the Foreigner’s Act for entering any area of India which is restricted for entry. She was sent to jail with her two children for nearly four months while her husband was detained in jail for six months. The court ruled that her husband was a citizen of India, and based on his status, citizenship should be granted to her also. But that has never happened.

“We felt a lot safer when Article 370 was in force,” Javed said. “But since it was repealed, we are not allowed to protest. Security agencies call us to question us.

“How will our voice reach the government? We don’t want to be crushed under politics. We want a humane approach to be adopted toward our case and (to) be sent back to our country with our children.”

Bushra, who works at Javed’s boutique and goes by one name, came to Kashmir with her husband from PAK, but their marriage ended in divorce in 2019. Her husband recently took custody of her two children and left her to fend for herself without any support system of family in India. 

“Before I got divorced, I had a sense of protection from living with my husband,” Bushra said. “But after my divorce, things have changed. I was lucky to use my skill for earning a livelihood, but it’s not easy to live without a husband or a family. It is not easy for a woman to live alone in a different country.”

Zaffar Iqbal is a journalist based in Kashmir, India. He has reported for 18 years on armed encounters, environmental issues, crime, politics, culture and human rights. He’s formerly the bureau chief of Jammu and Kashmir for NDTV.