April 26, 2025
By Rehan Piracha and Ahmed Saeed
LAHORE
Scores of cross-border families are stranded in Lahore, unable to reunite as India and Pakistan have closed their borders and cancelled visas for each other’s nationals.
Pakistan national Savita Kumari has been desperately trying to cross the Wagah border into India for the past two days with her two children, who are Indian nationals, to reunite with her husband Rishi Kumar Jisrani, a resident of Maharashtra state. Kumari holds a Noori visa (a long-term resident visa India grants to Pakistani Hindus married to Indian nationals). She moved to India 13 years ago after her marriage.
“The border authorities say the children can cross over to India being Indian nationals but I can’t because I am a Pakistani passport holder,” Kumari told Voicepk.net on Saturday. “My children, a boy aged 8 years and a girl aged 12 years, can cross into India, but how can I leave my children alone?”
Kumari has previously used her visa to travel from her home in India to visit her extended family in Pakistan. But that has made no difference amid the latest tensions. “I appeal to authorities in India and Pakistan to allow families that have valid long-term visas to reunite with their husbands, wives, and children across the border,” she added.
Scores of similar cross-border families, including women with long-term Indian visas, are staying at hotels near railway stations in Lahore. Many families, mostly Hindus who have run out of money, have sought shelter at Gurdwara Shaheed Singh Singhania and Gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore. The Evacuee Trust Property Board provides free boarding and food to Sikh and Hindu pilgrims at these Gurdwaras.
Following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir, the Indian government revoked visas for Pakistani nationals and ordered them to leave the country by April 27. Pakistanis with medical visas were told to leave by the April 29 deadline. The government later clarified that the order did not apply to Pakistanis with long-term visas. However, there is ambiguity in the Indian order regarding whether Pakistanis currently in Pakistan with long-term Indian visas would be allowed to enter India.
“Pakistani immigration officials at the Wagah border have no information from their Indian counterparts at Attari about whether they would permit entry to Pakistani nationals with long-term visas,” an Indian national told Voicepk.net on condition of anonymity. His wife is a Pakistani national with a long-term visa. He has not crossed the border, fearing that his Pakistani wife and children would be stranded in Pakistan.
Rishi Kumar Jisrani is waiting anxiously to reunite with his family at the Attari border in India. “They have told her that they can allow my children to come back since they are Indian passport holders, but not her,” he said, adding that he has received no guidance from the Indian authorities.
According to Pakistani media reports, Indian authorities have barred 60 women from returning to Pakistan following the border closure. These women, all Indian nationals married to Pakistani citizens, had been visiting India to meet family members. Their children are also stranded in India as authorities aren’t allowing them to enter Pakistan.
All these stranded women have valid long-term Pakistani visas. The women had traveled to India to reunite with their families and are now stranded in Amritsar.
Indian media has reported that among the stranded women is Irshad from Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh), who has been married to a Karachi resident for two decades. Though her daughters, who hold Pakistani nationality, were permitted to cross, she was denied passage despite claiming to have applied for Pakistani citizenship, a process still incomplete.
Sabina, a Rajasthan native who married a Pakistani in 2018, stands helpless with her minor son, a Pakistani national, while Wazida, traveling with her two Pakistani children, revealed that her citizenship application has been pending for 10 years since her marriage.
Indian media has further reported that 191 Pakistani nationals who had been visiting relatives in India were allowed to return home, while 287 Indians returned from Pakistan. However, no Indians were permitted to cross from India into Pakistan.