Kashmir's nowhere women living on edge

"I don't want to go back to Pakistan. Neither do my three children though they were born there. We have relatives across the border, but everything else here in Kashmir. All we want is Indian citizenship,

- Mir Ehsan & Ashiq Hussain

SRINAGAR: " says the Lahore native, who settled down in Sopore with her Kashmiri husband over a decade ago under the then state government's amnesty policy for former militants.

"The escalating tension between India and Pakistan after last week's Pahalgam terror attack has all of us worried. The uncertainty is the only topic of discussion at our homes for the past four days," she says, requesting anonymity.

She is among nearly 400 women who came to the Valley with their Kashmiri husbands after 2010 when the then chief minister, Omar Abdullah, announced a return and rehabilitation policy for former militants living in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Of the many Kashmiri youngsters who had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) into PoK in the 1990s to get arms training after insurgency in Kashmir, some had given up violence, married there and started their lives afresh.

They are worried after the Centre ordered the exit of Pakistani citizens currently in India on short-term or now-invalid visas in the aftermath of the April 22 terror attack. "For the past four days, the Pahalgam attack has been the main topic of discussion in our homes. We are always on the radar of different agencies despite staying in Kashmir for over a decade," she says.