Pakistani brides stranded in J&K demand travel documents to return home

Call it a quirk-of-fate, a rehabilitation policy meant to bring back militants stranded in Pakistan has left many of their foreign wives stranded in Kashmir.

For the last nine years, dozens of brides who came along with their husbands from different routes have been left at the mercy of god with no travel documents to visit their parents and kins across the Line of Control.Top it all, some of the brides have been divorced and some have been unable to adjust in the new setup. With no travel documents to return, the brides are suffering in silence.

Kubra Geelani, a resident of Muzaffarabad married a Kashmiri man who crossed the Line of Control in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir for arms training. When rehabilitation policy was approved by the then Omar Abdullah government in 2010, she returned to Kashmir with her husband.

“I have been divorced. My husband has left me.  I have no place to live. I have nowhere to go. I am stranded here. We are not given the citizenship rights. My father died in December and I could not go. I want to go home”, said Geelani.

Under the rehabilitation policy approved by the state cabinet on November 22, 2010, the government wanted to facilitate the return of ex-militants who belong to J&K and had crossed over to POK/Pakistan for arms training, but have given up the insurgent activities and are willing to return to the state.  However, only those militants who have crossed into PoK and Pakistan between January 1, 1989 and December 31 2009 and their dependents will be eligible for consideration under the policy.

Four transit points have been selected where from all former militants permitted to return under the policy would be permitted to enter. These include  Wagah, Attari or through Salamabad or Chakan-da-bagh crossings on the Line of Control or through the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. However, most of the people who returned came via Nepal.

Figures presented in the Legislative Council in April 2015, the then minister for Horticulture and Haj and Auqaf Abdul Rehman Veeri said 453 persons along with 197 wives and 603 children have returned via Nepal which is not a recognized route.

On Saturday, the Pakistani brides staged a protest in Srinagar demanding their rights and travel documents to visit Pakistan.  The Pakistani women appealed Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers to intervene and allow them to travel to Pakistan.