Jammu and Kashmir HC halts deportation of police constable, eight siblings to Pakistan

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01-05-2025

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Tuesday halted the deportation of a police constable and his eight siblings to Pakistan after notices were sent to them to leave India in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, PTI reported.
However, the current location of the siblings, who had been transported to the Attari-Wagah border near Punjab's Amritsar by authorities before the stay order, is not known, The Indian Express reported.
Poonch Senior Superintendent of Police Shafqat Hussain told the newspaper that there was 'uncertainty about their whereabouts'.
In the wake of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22, India had ordered all Pakistani citizens in the country to leave by April 27, and also suspended visa services to Pakistani citizens with immediate effect.
The case
On Saturday, the deputy commissioner in Poonch district issued a deportation notice to 45-year-old Iftkhar Ali, a constable who had been working with the Jammu and Kashmir Police for 27 years, The Times of India reported.
His elder brothers Zulfqar Ali, Mohammad Shafiq, Mohammad Shakoor and his sisters Shazia Tabsam, Kouser Parveen, Naseem Akhter, Akseer Akhtar and Nashroon Akhter were also served notices. All of them are residents of Salwah in the district.
A day later, all nine of them were taken into custody by the police and driven to the Attari-Wagah border for deportation, according to The Times of India.
Iftkhar Ali and his siblings, however, challenged the deportation orders in court.
On Wednesday, Justice Rahul Bharti directed the authorities to ensure that the nine petitioners 'not be asked or forced to leave' the Union Territory. The judge added that a preliminary case was made out by the revenue papers submitted by their counsel that they were not Pakistani citizens.
The court also asked the authorities to submit their objections to the petition, and listed the matter for hearing on May 20.
In their petition, Iftkhar Ali and his siblings claimed that their father Faqur Din was a 'hereditary state subject' as per a permanent resident certificate that ceased to exist after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, The Indian Express reported.
Din was also an Indian citizen under the 1955 Citizenship Act, the petition said, adding that their family owned about 17 acres of land and a house at Salwah village.
However, Pakistan had taken over areas along the Line of Control, including where Din, his wife and three children were settled, during the 1965 India-Pakistan war, the petition said. Subsequently, Din and his family spent years at a camp in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, The Indian Express reported.
The petition said that Din had made frequent representations to the Pakistan government to aid them in their return to Salwah.
The family eventually returned to the village between the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to the newspaper.
A petition by Din to the court seeking directions that they not be moved out of Jammu and Kashmir had been rejected, the petition noted. The court had said that citizenship could only be decided by an appropriate authority and directed him to approach the Centre.
In 1997, the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir issued ' state subject ' status, or permanent resident status, to Iftkhar Ali. His siblings were granted the status in 2000.
However, the petitioners claimed that this status was cancelled on the basis of 'false' complaints by their relatives in a matter related to a property dispute, The Indian Express reported. The siblings said that the matter was still pending before the court.
Pahalgam terror attack
Twenty-six persons were killed and 17 were injured in the attack near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22.
The attack took place in the Baisaran area of Anantnag district. Militants fired at tourists, most of whom were from outside the state. The terrorists targeted tourists after asking their names to ascertain their religion, the police said. All but three of those who died were Hindu.
At least 537 Pakistanis