PATNA: The Centre’s decision to revoke all visas issued to Pakistani nationals has come as a bolt from the blue for them.“I would rather die on the land where I was born (India) than return to Pakistan,” so says a visibly despondent Nusarat Firoz (62). Firoz — who married a Pakistani national named Firoz Akhtar in 1992 and moved across the border — returned to India with their three children after the death of her husband in 2012. Back in India, she and her children have spent more than a decade living with her brothers in Bihar’s Patna.“I have been here with my children for the last 13 years or so. I have got my daughter married in Patna. My two sons, who have finished studies, are doing well in life. The government directive to cancel the visas has upended our lives,” she rues.Firoz’s is not an isolated case. Waziha from Pakistan’s Karachi tied the knot with Tanveer Ahmad, an Indian national, in 2012. She has been living with her husband and three children in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur since then. But her future hangs in the balance now. “I have been living here on an extended visa. I have not been to Pakistan since we got married.” Waziha, a native of Pakistan’s Sindh province, says, “Now, India is our ‘mulk’ (country),” she insists, expressing her reluctance to go back to Pakistan.In a separate case, Aftab Alam, also a resident of Muzaffarpur whose family is in Pakistan, is anxious as he would not be able to meet his wife and their 10-year-old daughter now.These are just some of the many Pakistani nationals and families bearing the brunt of the government move triggered by the Pahalgam terror attack.
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