Separated by borders: Pakistani children sent back, mother stuck in India

Watch how 11-year-old Zainab and 8-year-old Zenish, Pakistani nationals, faced a tragic dilemma at the India-Pakistan border in Punjab.

Transcript

00:0011-year-old Zainab and 8-year-old Zenish faced a tragic dilemma at the India-Pakistan border in

00:11Punjab as both were being sent back to their country with their mother stuck in India.

00:18The family which travelled from Karachi to India in March 2025 had been caught in a bureaucratic

00:23nightmare. The situation stemmed from the fact that the mothers hold Indian citizenship while

00:29their children are Pakistani nationals. In March 2025, both children, Pakistani nationals,

00:34arrived in India with their mother to meet their grandmother in Delhi. Little did they

00:38know that within a month, the relationship between the countries would hit an all-time

00:42low. While Zenab said the terrorists involved in the Pahlkam attack should be civilly punished,

00:47she had a message for the government.

00:59In retaliation to the Pahlkam terror attack on April 22, the Narendra Modi government,

01:06as a part of a string of measures, called for the revocation of all existing visas under

01:11the Sark visa exemption scheme and a 48-hour deadline for all Pakistani citizens to leave

01:16India. Authorities also directed all Pakistani nationals with valid travel documents who had

01:21entered India recently to return by May 1, 2025.