Fifty-three-year-old Pakistan-born Sharada Kukreja, who has been living in Odisha’s Bolangir district for 35 years after marrying an Indian citizen, on Saturday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi not to separate her from her family as she has been issued a notice by police to leave the country.
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India announced on Thursday that all visas issued to Pakistani nationals would be revoked from April 27 and asked these people to leave the country as tensions between the two countries escalated after the barbaric terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam left 26 people, mostly tourists, dead.
Forced conversion bid
Sharada, who was born in Sukkur city of Pakistan’s Sindh province, fled to India to escape forced conversion and marriage to a Muslim youth there. She has been staying in Odisha’s Bolangir district for 35 years after marrying Mahesh Kumar Kukreja. She has two children – a son and a daughter. Both her children are married.
When contacted, Bolangir Superintendent of Police, Abilash G told PTI that the administration has served a notice to Sharada to leave the country “at the earliest”. He said the notice was served to the woman alone and not to her husband or children. Asked about Sharada Kukreja’s claim that she has an Aadhaar card and participated in elections, the SP said: “We have served the notice as per the record. We have to verify the claims she is now making.”
Holds Pakistani passport
Sharada said she along with her four sisters and five brothers fled from Pakistan fearing conversion and settled in Bolangir 35 years ago. All her siblings are also married and living in different parts of India. “First we arrived in Odisha’s Koraput district and came to Bolangir after marriage. I have been in Bolangir for 35 years. I was only 18 years old when I got married in 1990,” she said, adding that her family had migrated to India on a 60-day visa in 1987.
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While all her family members are Indians, she still holds a Pakistani passport and is technically a citizen of that country.
“I have an Aadhaar card and also voted in different elections. But, technically, I am not considered an Indian,” Sharada claimed, adding that she was hopeful that she would get Indian citizenship with the Citizenship Amendment Act coming into effect. Indian citizenship still eludes her, she said.
Appeal to PM Modi
With the fear of being driven out of the country and separated from her family at this age, Sharada appealed to the prime minister and the chief minister not to separate her from her husband and children.
“If at all, the Indian government sends me back to Pakistan, where should I go, whom should I meet there? I have no one in that country. I have never visited Pakistan after 1987. Even I have not called anyone over the phone in Pakistan. Whom should I call? I have no connection with that country which failed to give me and my family protection,” she said.
With a choked voice, Sharada says that she cannot live for a moment without her family. Her son, daughter and grandchildren are also equally worried and refuse to allow her to be separated from them.
More people on radar
The Odisha government has so far identified 12 Pakistani nationals residing in the state on long-term and short-term visas and asked to leave the country by April 27.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani woman married to a shop owner in Bhubaneswar since 2008, found that her pending country exit permit has been approved by the police on Saturday. Her long-term visa (LTV) expired in 2024 and she obtained a visitor visa after her application for an extension of the visa was rejected. She then applied for a country exit permit in February.
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“Yes, we have approved her country exit permit and also served the leave country notice for being a Pakistan national. She has been ordered to leave India by April 27,” Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena told reporters here.
Meena said that the action is being taken as per an order of the Centre which has revoked different types of visas allotted to Pakistani nationals. “We had received the order from the state government and based on that we verified and found that one Pakistani national was in Bhubaneswar. She was identified and contacted,” the DCP said.
(With agency inputs)