Parted, Again

After the Pahalgam terror attack, many families had to say abrupt goodbyes to their loved ones after they were sent back to Pakistan. Future is uncertain for those who are still living here

- Ishfaq Naseem

On an April morning, a police vehicle stopped outside the house of Suhail Ahmad, who lives in the Ompura area of Budgam district in Kashmir. His life changed that morning.

An engineer by profession, Ahmad worked in Saudi Arabia and married a Pakistani girl in 2022. He returned to Kashmir to look after his ailing mother and decided to set up a business here. His wife moved as well on a long-term visa (LTV). Eight months ago, the couple was blessed with a daughter. It was all good until the afternoon of April 22, when terrorists killed 26 civilians—mostly tourists and all men—who were holidaying in Pahalgam in Kashmir.

Three days after the attack, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha directed officials to ensure the “exit” of Pakistani nationals as per the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) orders, which said that all visas—except LTVs and diplomatic and official visas—stood revoked from April 27. The decision put many families in the Valley in a fix. Ahmad's family was one such. While the authorities initially said his wife's name was not on the list of those to be deported, police arrived at Ahmad’s home one morning. They told his wife to go back to Pakistan, but without their eight-month-old daughter, who was born in India.

“We pleaded with the authorities that his wife had an LTV valid until June 30. We had even applied for an extension of the visa. Her name was not on the list, but two days later she was sent back,” says Rafiq Masoodi, Ahmad’s uncle, who worked at senior-level positions in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.