ISLAMABAD - The troubles of a Pakistan woman and her minor daughter, who had been languishing in a jail in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) for over four years, may end as Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday gave formal approval for the repatriation of the duo.
The woman, identified as Rubeena, had gone to India for medical treatment but her husband allegedly abandoned her (along with the minor girl) in New Delhi while disappearing with her passport and other travel documents. The Pakistani High Commissioner reportedly cast off her nationality as Pakistani to facilitate her deportation, leaving the mother and the daughter to languish behind bars for four years.
Earlier, the Indian media while quoting a lawyer and a human rights activist in IHK reported that Rubeena was a resident of Musa Colony Hyderabad, Sindh and was on a visit to New Delhi in November 2012 for asthma treatment. Her husband and her four-month-old daughter (at that time) had accompanied her.
“The interior minister has asked the authorities concerned to make necessary arrangement for the safe return of Rubeena and her daughter despite the fact that her Pakistani nationality could not be verified yet,” a spokesperson for the interior minister said.
The husband of Rubeena had abandoned her in New Dehli after depriving her of money and travel documents including a passport and a national identity card, the spokesperson said adding, “thus, the husband left Rubeena and her daughter helpless”.
On an appeal of Rubeena, some people in New Dehli arranged money for her and made arrangements to deliver her on the border of IHK. However, the Indian border authorities took her into custody after she failed to furnish travel documents.
The interior ministry had earlier asked the Pakistani High Commission in New Dehli to collect necessary details about the women who is said be in her late twenties. The National Database and Registration Authority and the Passport Office in their initial reports presented to the minister said that the Pakistani nationality of the woman could not be verified. The minister again asked the High Commission to get consular access to the woman and get details about her nationality.
The spokesperson said that the issue of verification of Rubeena’s nationality could not be verified despite a passage of two months following the directives issued by the minister. According to the Indian media, a judge in the IHK high court in Srinagar while hearing the deportation case of Rubeena had remarked the woman and her minor child belonged to “some place on the planet and they should be returned to their roots”.
