‘Meet my daughter’: Mother of woman trapped in Indian Kashmir

In the 1990s, young men who migrated from Indian-administered Kashmir and settled in Pakistan-administered Kashmir married Pakistani women here.

More than 300 women have moved with their husbands to Indian-administered Kashmir since 2010, where they face severe problems after their husbands die or divorce.

When women from Pakistan-administered Kashmir tried to visit their parents or return permanently, they were left stranded because they did not have travel documents, the women and their families. According to him, he made several contacts with the Pakistani authorities on this matter, but they were not heard.

In Indian-administered Kashmir, these women have made several requests to the Indian authorities to return, but they are not getting any help. These women have also established an organization and fought for their return, but the authorities of both countries are not taking any serious steps on this issue.

Kabra Geelani of Muzaffarabad is among the more than 350 women who have been in the Indian-administered Kashmir region of Kakarnag for the past nine years and are trying to return, but due to lack of travel documents, they are unable to return. They cannot come back to Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Her father passed away during her daughter’s separation, while her aged mother Parveen Bibi has been waiting for her daughter’s return for many years and lives in a rented house in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir.

Kabra Geelani got married to a man named Altaf Ahmed in 2010 and in 2014 with the tacit approval of the then Indian government after Farooq Abdullah, the chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, returned to the area for those who left the area. After being offered amnesty, Kabra Gilani moved with her husband to their ancestral home in Kakarnag, Indian-administered Kashmir, where she was divorced by her husband two years later.

After the divorce, living in Indian-administered Kashmir turned out to be a nightmare for Kubra. According to Parveen Gilani, he came to know about his daughter’s departure to Indian-administered Kashmir when his son-in-law had gone there with his daughter.

She could not talk to her own daughter for two years after her daughter left. When she spoke to Kabra on her mobile phone two years later, she found out that her daughter had been divorced by her husband. And now he is destitute in Indian Kashmir, with no travel documents to return to his home.

After learning about her daughter’s condition, Parveen and her husband, who was still alive at the time, knocked on every door they could find hope for their daughter’s return.

According to Parveen Geelani, he met the then Prime Minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Raja Farooq Haider Khan, and requested that the government help him to return his daughter.

Parveen tearfully told that Raja Farooq Haider tore up his application and asked him to leave. After the disappointing behavior of the Prime Minister, Parveen and her husband decided to appear before the other officials posted in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and then before the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, in which they said they were successful. But despite the meeting with Imran Khan, the government of Pakistan has not taken any concrete steps for the return of his daughter.

Talking to Independent Urdu, Parveen said that she was disappointed from all sides, while her husband, suffering from the grief of separation from his daughter, passed away two years ago, longing to see her daughter with his own eyes.

According to Parveen, his daughter Kabra has also tried on her own on various platforms to get the Indian or Pakistani government to issue documentary evidence/passport, thanks to which she can come to Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

According to Parveen, her daughter also met Fauzia Habib, former director of the Pakistan High Commission and stayed at the Wagah border for a month but was ignored by both governments, after which she again went to Kakarnag.

While Parveen is eager to bring her daughter back to her homeland, she is also worried that her daughter will not fare well in Indian-administered Kashmir as she has no documentary evidence. Not behaving.

Parveen says that at present his daughter is residing in Darul Aman while her health is also deteriorating day by day.

According to Parveen, she talks to her daughter through WhatsApp, which allows the mother and daughter to see each other on the phone, but the phone conversations are brief and sometimes it is possible to talk months later. Is.

Kabra Geelani from Kakarnag in Indian-administered Kashmir told Independent Urdu (via WhatsApp video call) that she is very eager to return home and misses her mother and her family very much.

According to Kabra, due to the poor conditions there, the internet is often cut off, and she has to wait for months to talk to her mother.

According to Kabra, there are currently more than 300 women like her in Indian-administered Kashmir who came there with their husbands after the amnesty was announced, but returned due to lack of travel documents after their husbands died or divorced. They could not go and now they are stuck in Indian-administered Kashmir.

According to Kabra, she and women like her have applied for their return everywhere here, but no hearing is done, they are neither provided with travel documents nor deported.

In this regard, Independent Urdu spoke to Nasir Qadri, an advocate from Srinagar, who has also been an executive member of the Srinagar Bar Association and currently holds the position of executive director of the Legal Forum of Kashmir.

According to Nasir, he is aware of the case of Kubra and many women like her and has met many of them.

Advocate Nasir says that ‘First of all, the ‘Militant Rehabilitation Policy’ announced by the Indian government in 2010 and the amnesty given by the Chief Minister of Indian-administered Kashmir at that time Farooq Abdullah (under which (People who came to Pakistani Kashmir from Indian Kashmir and returned without any document) Both the actions were completely wrong, it had no legal status but the Indian government of that time remained silent with consent to this process.

He said: ‘When the Government of India remained silent, it meant that they accepted the process, but after that they looked at those people who went back in the same way as they look at the enemy.’

Advocate Nasir Qadri said that there is no doubt that the Indian government’s treatment of these women is inhumane. International law provides special exceptions for women and children under humanitarian law in every case, while India It presents itself to the world as a state that is a champion of human rights, but the reality is different.

He added: ‘Currently, more than 300 women, whose documentary records are not available either with the government of Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, or even with the Indian government, are living there in a state of extreme deprivation.’

According to Nasir, India’s behavior towards them is not acceptable in any way, but the governments of Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir are not showing as much seriousness in this matter as they should.

Explaining the legal background of the return of these women, Advocate Nasir said that ‘According to the law, if India or Pakistan will issue them travel documents/passports, then legally these women are eligible for international travel, but India or Pakistan Not doing that. Now, if there is any way for these women to return, it is the mutual understanding between the two governments at the diplomatic level.’

Nasir says that the governments of Pakistan and India have many times in the past settled matters in which there was no enforcement of the law, such as the Cease Fire Line Agreement and the Kashmir Bus Service, so understanding the spirit of goodwill. As such, these women can be sent back to their country, there is no big deal in it.

According to Advocate Nasir Qadri: ‘More than 300 of the returning Kashmiris’ wives are women whose husbands died or were divorced and are now stuck in Indian-administered Kashmir. These are the women who are neither being issued Kashmir cards by the government of Indian-administered Kashmir nor Indian passports and the government of Pakistan is also reluctant to issue passports to them.

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