Pakistani Hindu woman granted exit permission after 19 months

Jodhpur: An elderly Hindu woman from Pakistan, who has been stuck in India since March last year due to alleged refusal of Indian immigration authorities to grant her exit permission, will leave for home on Friday.

SP (CID) Santosh Kumar Chalke said that Hawa Devi has been granted permission to leave for Pakistan, along with her son and sister-in-law. After consultation with the Home Department and perusal of documents, the case has been found to bona fide for departure from the country, he added.

"...It has been solved and they have been granted permission to leave for Pakistan on Friday," Chalke said.

Hawa Devi (75) of Mithi in Sindh Province of Pakistan had visited Haridwar on pilgrim visa in March 2014, along with her son Mahesho and sister-in-law Moomal.

But when she came back to Jodhpur and wanted to leave for Pakistan, they were allegedly denied permission for departure.

"After completing our pilgrimage, when we came back to Jodhpur and applied for departure permission from Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO), they kept on lingering the matter until the date of visa expired," said Mahesho.

"...We were asked to deposit our passports in January this year at FRRO by an inspector, which we did and today, we do not have any valid document with us to show our status," Maheso said, adding that they needed to go back home at the earliest to attend to his ailing father.

"Though I did not have any trouble living here but the denial of permission to leave for Pakistan was quite a painful experience...," said Hawa Devi.

Hindu Singh Sodha, President of the Seemant Lok Sangthan, which has been fighting for the rights of Pakistani Hindu migrants, said it was unfortunate that a family was made to stay back despite its will to go, that too after expiry of their visa, over some petty.