Pakistani Hindus with India visa grapple with uncertainty as deadline looms

Jaipur: Twenty-seven-year-old Sikandar Oad has been waiting at the Indian side of the Wagah border since Friday. His wife and two children are just across the heavily guarded gates and barbed wires, awaiting a nod to crossover. They had been issued short-term visas to stay in India around four weeks back.

India’s decision to suspend all visa services to Pakistan nationals with immediate effect in the light of the deadliest terrorist attack in Pahalgam has cast a long shadow over the family’s hopes of a reunion. Separated by the hostile border, neither Sikandar nor his wife knows whether they can meet each other anytime soon. 

Sikandar, a Pakistani citizen with a long-term Indian visa, has been living in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer city for the past three years. Working as a grinder, he wishes to meet his family, who lives in the Sanghar district of Pakistan’s Sindh province. 

Speaking to DH over the phone, Sikandar expressed his worries. “I was elated that my family was issued visas by India and they could travel here and be with me for a while. My two sons are nine and five years old. I haven’t seen them for three years now. But in this situation, it is not clear when they will be allowed to crossover or how long they can stay here. I have applied for long-term visas for them. Obviously, there is ambiguity over it now. Here, there is no official version or officers around to ask. We are not allowed to go near the Wagah gate. We can do nothing else but wait.” 

Similar is the case of Haresh Kumar Oad. Haresh and his maternal uncle have been waiting at Wagah for the last three days to receive his father and siblings, belonging to the same locality as Sikandar’s family, stuck on the other side of the fence.

Haresh and his uncle, who work as labourers, have long-term visas and have been staying in Jaisalmer since 2017. With crowds thronging the Wagah border, Haresh says there are no officials to update them. “We have no option but to wait here.” 

He also raised another concern. “There are many Hindu families in Jaisalmer who are on short-term visas. They would have to go back (to Pakistan) by April 27, but they don’t want to. Many want to stay back as they have no idea when or how they will be able to come back.”

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MEA) on April 24 issued a notification that all existing visas issued by India to Pakistan nationals stand revoked with effect from April 27. However they left out the medical visas issued to Pakistani nationals, making it valid till April 29. 

Long-Term Visas (LTV) are issued to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan nationals coming to India with valid travel documents that include valid passport and valid visa and seeking permanent settlement in India with a view to acquire Indian citizenship. LTVs are usually given for a period of five years initially, after which they can request for extension. There are penalties, imprisonment or future ban on entering the country if one overstays. 

Short-term visas usually come in two categories: Visitor visa and pilgrim visa, and can be granted from anywhere between one month to
eight months. 

On April 25, the MEA issued a clarification that revocation of visas do not apply to LTVs already issued to Hindu Pakistani nationals.

While the clarification comes as a big relief for many, Jodhpur-based Hindu Singh Sodha, a human rights activist working for Pakistani Hindu refugees and migrants, says he has been writing letters to the Prime Minister, MEA and Rajasthan chief minister, citing the plight of the
Hindu families who are here on short-term visas. 

In his letter dated April 24, Sodha, who runs the organisation Seemant Lok Sangathan (SLS), urged the India government not to send back those who have come here from Pakistan because of religious persecution.

“I have been receiving hundreds of calls and messages from people who are Pakistan nationals but have been living here for years, escaping the religious persecution in that country. As it is, those who came here on short-term visas and have applied for LTV have to wait as they are being processed. For the past two years, the MEA has not been granting any LTVs. After the Pahalgam incident and the MEA’s notification, the migrants have been receiving calls from local authorities, warning them about leaving the Indian soil. Naturally there is a sense of fear and panic among such residents. I have urged the highest authorities, including the Prime Minister, to not send them back to Pakistan where they may face further victimisation,” Sodha told DH. 

Dileep Singh Sodha, who also works with the SLS in Jaisalmer, says Hindu Pakistan nationals who are on short-term visas living in and around Jaisalmer are terrified. He says there are at least 1,000 people who are on short-term visas here, claiming that he saw a list being updated at the local police office. The list ran into seven to eight pages with at least 40 names on each page, making it at least 300 people, he claims. “And there  would be at least another 600 people who would be on short-term pilgrim visas. But how would these people return to Pakistan as the deadline ends, there is no clarity as all officials are tight-lipped.”

Calls to Additional SP, Jaisalmer, who is handling the issue in the region, went unanswered.

Meanwhile, people like Sikander and Haresh continue to wait at the border.

(The writer is a Jaipur-based senior journalist)