J&K cop, 8 siblings get deportation stay but go 'missing’ at Attari border

In a dramatic twist to an unfolding deportation crisis, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has stayed the expulsion of a serving police constable and his eight siblings — residents of Salwah in Poonch — on the grounds that they may not be Pakistani citizens.

But before the court issued its directive, the family had already taken away to the Attari border in Punjab — and is now reportedly missing.

The family includes J&K Police Constable Iftkhar Ali, 45, and his four brothers and four sisters, all born to Faqur Din, a man described as a hereditary state subject and Indian citizen under the 1955 Citizenship Act.

The deportation notice, issued by the Poonch Deputy Commissioner on April 26, was received just days before their removal on April 28, following instructions from the Centre that all Pakistani nationals without valid long-term visas must leave the country.

Constable Ali, currently posted at the Vaishno Devi base camp, and his siblings were taken into custody on April 28 and transported overnight to Attari. They were reportedly scheduled for deportation the next morning. However, the High Court intervened on April 29, issuing a stay and directing the authorities not to expel them from Jammu and Kashmir.

Justice Rahul Bharti, noting “prima facie a case is made out” based on revenue documents and historical evidence of residence, ordered that the family not be forced to leave pending further inquiry.

The court also demanded an affidavit from the Poonch Deputy Commissioner detailing any property held by the family in Salwah, either individually or through their late father.

But it may have come too late.

On April 30, Poonch SSP Shafqat Hussain admitted there was “uncertainty about their whereabouts.” With the family unaccounted for, questions mount over procedural lapses and potential human rights violations.

The family's legal battle hinges on a complex history: during the 1965 India-Pakistan war, Faqur Din and his family were displaced as Pakistani forces temporarily occupied parts of the Line of Control. They lived in a refugee camp in Tralkhal, PoK, where six of the nine siblings were born. Local villagers corroborate that the family returned to Salwah between the late 1980s and early 1990s.

While state subject certificates were issued to Ali in 1997 and to his siblings in 2000, the central government never finalized their citizenship status. The situation took a turn when their residency status was revoked, allegedly due to false complaints from relatives aiming to claim their ancestral land.

“They are not Pakistanis. My husband was born here, served here, and this land is all we know,” Iftkhar Ali’s wife told reporters tearfully. “Sending him away is not just injustice—it's erasure.”

Locals, including former Salwah sarpanch Showkat Ahmed, echoed her sentiment, describing emotional scenes at the family home as neighbors rallied to stop the deportation.

The High Court has listed the next hearing for May 20. But unless the family is traced and brought back from the brink of deportation, justice may arrive too late.