The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to take steps for the return of the Pakistan-born son of an Indian citizen who was deported after the April 2025 Pahalgam attack.
Hearing a petition filed by Sajjad Ahmed, 42, Justice MA Chowdhary directed the MHA “to get the petitioner’s son namely Aasim Sajjad aka Fardin Sajjad pursuant to the ‘Quit India Notice’ dated April 25”.
The court ruled that the son, who was around 18 when he was deported to Pakistan in 2025, should be allowed to “pursue his application for the extension of his long-term visa”. The court also ordered the MHA to consider and grant citizenship against the application filed by him under Section 5(1)(a). d) the Citizenship Act of 1955.
“(Sajjad Ahmed) being an Indian citizen, this court is of the view that in view of the sacred human values and rights, the court must step in to issue certain directions,” Justice Chowdhary observed while handing over the directions to the MHA.
The court asked the MHA to carry out the exercise “expeditiously, preferably within eight weeks”.
Mr. Ahmed, a resident of Rajouri’s Budhal, went to Pakistan on a valid passport in 2005 to meet his relatives. During his stay, he married Shabnum Kouser, a resident of Gujranwala, Pakistan. In 2006, the couple had a child there. He returned to India in 2007 and applied for visa extensions for his family members every year on the basis of marriage. In 2013, Mr. Ahmed’s wife died of an illness. The minor son’s visa was extended until 2015.
According to the family’s plea, the father made several applications through proper channels to the appropriate authority seeking to declare his son a citizen of India, “but neither the son was declared a citizen nor the visa was extended in his favour”.
“Like a bolt from the sky, J&K Police personnel raided the petitioner’s house and took away his son without any information and a copy of the deportation order,” the father’s plea said. Later, the son was “forcibly taken into a police van and deported to Pakistan via the Wagah border”.
After the Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 civilians dead, many Pakistan-born citizens married to J&K citizens were deported from the Union Territory.
Published – 01 April 2026 22:55 IST
