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Ajeet Kumar Nagdev wants to return to Balochistan and his extended family. Diplomatic red tape has delayed their 1,700 km journey by more than a month.
When eight-year-old Lovina’s mother Rekha Kumari, 38, died in Nagpur, Maharashtra, due to kidney failure, it was more than a personal tragedy. The death left her Pakistani Hindu family temporarily stranded in India.
Born in India on September 6, 2012, Lovina’s name is endorsed on her mother’s Pakistani passport, which became invalid when Rekha died.
The child, called Gurya (doll) at home, has never been to Pakistan. In 2010, her parents moved from Usta Mohammad in Balochistan, Pakistan to Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, a little known town in central India, leaving behind a large extended family.
Despite its population of under 10,000, Balaghat has a sizeable community of Pakistani Hindu migrants, including from Usta Mohammad (which has a population of 84,000) at the border of Balochistan and Sindh. Nagpur in Maharashtra state, which is close to Balaghat, has an even larger number of Pakistani Hindu migrants. The childhood home of Dr A.Q. Khan, ‘father’ of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, Nagpur even has a Quetta Colony.
Finding the grass not always greener on the other side, some migrants decide to return. Since the first lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, until March 17, 2021, 1,288 Pakistani Hindus have gone back, says the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi. Another 107 are on a list compiled on March 22, 2021, waiting to return.
Only rarely are there complications. In one instance, a mother crossing over to Pakistan at the Wagah border found that her baby’s passport had expired, a Pakistan High Commission official tells me. They had to stay back to get the child’s passport updated.
logoSUPPORThomePOLITICS ECONOMY EXTERNAL AFFAIRS SECURITY CULTURE OPINION VIDEO ANALYSIS MEDIA GOVERNMENT WORLD EDITOR'S PICK TOP STORIES LIVE WIRE SCIENCESouth-AsiaWaiting for a Passport: A Pakistani Hindu Family in India Hopes to Return HomeAjeet Kumar Nagdev wants to return to Balochistan and his extended family. Diplomatic red tape has delayed their 1,700 km journey by more than a month.May 24, 2021 | Beena Sarwar Gurmeet, Ajit Kumar, Ranjeet, Rekha and Lovina in this 2017 family photos. Photo: Family album
When eight-year-old Lovina’s mother Rekha Kumari, 38, died in Nagpur, Maharashtra, due to kidney failure, it was more than a personal tragedy. The death left her Pakistani Hindu family temporarily stranded in India.
Born in India on September 6, 2012, Lovina’s name is endorsed on her mother’s Pakistani passport, which became invalid when Rekha died.
The child, called Gurya (doll) at home, has never been to Pakistan. In 2010, her parents moved from Usta Mohammad in Balochistan, Pakistan to Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, a little known town in central India, leaving behind a large extended family.
Despite its population of under 10,000, Balaghat has a sizeable community of Pakistani Hindu migrants, including from Usta Mohammad (which has a population of 84,000) at the border of Balochistan and Sindh. Nagpur in Maharashtra state, which is close to Balaghat, has an even larger number of Pakistani Hindu migrants. The childhood home of Dr A.Q. Khan, ‘father’ of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, Nagpur even has a Quetta Colony.
Finding the grass not always greener on the other side, some migrants decide to return. Since the first lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, until March 17, 2021, 1,288 Pakistani Hindus have gone back, says the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi. Another 107 are on a list compiled on March 22, 2021, waiting to return.
Only rarely are there complications. In one instance, a mother crossing over to Pakistan at the Wagah border found that her baby’s passport had expired, a Pakistan High Commission official tells me. They had to stay back to get the child’s passport updated.
Rekha Kumari’s passport endorsing Lovina. Photo: By arrangement
Deciding to go back
Speaking over the phone from his rental in Balaghat, Rekha’s husband Ajeet Kumar Nagdev, 41, tells me the family went to Pakistan only once after the move, for a wedding in 2011.
Since Rehka’s passing, he has been struggling to take care of the children, cook meals, and deal with not only the emotional but the logistical aftermath of his wife’s death. She was a matriculate, more educated than Nagdev, who left school after Class VIII.
We converse in Urdu. Gurya comes to the phone to say hello. She has a slight lisp and says that she’s playing with her dolls. Her brothers, Gurmeet and Ranjet – 15 and 12 respectively – sometimes play with her too.
“All Hindus in Pakistan are Sindhi-speaking”, including all those settled in India, says Nagdev, but the children here largely speak Urdu.
Gurya misses her mother. They all do.
“What can I do? I go into the kitchen to weep, so the children don’t see me cry,” says Nagdev who has just finished cooking dinner – a potato dish, and vadas with yoghurt that the children like.
He began to help out in the kitchen and cook for the family after Rekha’s health began deteriorating, around 2017 or 2018. She developed high blood pressure, shortness of breath and kidney issues. “First one kidney, then the other.”
Finding it increasingly difficult to cope, they decided to return to Usta Mohammad to their large, well-settled business community that has been there for generations. They lived there in a large joint family home with five of Nagdev’s brothers, their families, and the families of the two deceased eldest brothers. Nagdev, the youngest of twelve, has three sisters in Usta Mohammad. Rekha’s four brothers are there too.
In India, their relatives are migrants in nuclear families – Nagdev’s brother and some cousins in Balaghat and Nagpur, and Rekha’s sisters in Pune and Indore.
The pandemic affected Nagdev’s hosiery-selling business at village marts around Balaghat and exacerbated their sense of isolation.
Pakistani hindus want to come back from hindu rashtra supa puwa 2020 ruled by 56 inches chest Shri Modi Jee
When eight-year-old Lovina’s mother Rekha Kumari, 38, died in Nagpur, Maharashtra, due to kidney failure, it was more than a personal tragedy. The death left her Pakistani Hindu family temporarily stranded in India.
Born in India on September 6, 2012, Lovina’s name is endorsed on her mother’s Pakistani passport, which became invalid when Rekha died.
The child, called Gurya (doll) at home, has never been to Pakistan. In 2010, her parents moved from Usta Mohammad in Balochistan, Pakistan to Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, a little known town in central India, leaving behind a large extended family.
Despite its population of under 10,000, Balaghat has a sizeable community of Pakistani Hindu migrants, including from Usta Mohammad (which has a population of 84,000) at the border of Balochistan and Sindh. Nagpur in Maharashtra state, which is close to Balaghat, has an even larger number of Pakistani Hindu migrants. The childhood home of Dr A.Q. Khan, ‘father’ of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, Nagpur even has a Quetta Colony.
Finding the grass not always greener on the other side, some migrants decide to return. Since the first lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, until March 17, 2021, 1,288 Pakistani Hindus have gone back, says the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi. Another 107 are on a list compiled on March 22, 2021, waiting to return.
Only rarely are there complications. In one instance, a mother crossing over to Pakistan at the Wagah border found that her baby’s passport had expired, a Pakistan High Commission official tells me. They had to stay back to get the child’s passport updated.
logoSUPPORThomePOLITICS ECONOMY EXTERNAL AFFAIRS SECURITY CULTURE OPINION VIDEO ANALYSIS MEDIA GOVERNMENT WORLD EDITOR'S PICK TOP STORIES LIVE WIRE SCIENCESouth-AsiaWaiting for a Passport: A Pakistani Hindu Family in India Hopes to Return HomeAjeet Kumar Nagdev wants to return to Balochistan and his extended family. Diplomatic red tape has delayed their 1,700 km journey by more than a month.May 24, 2021 | Beena Sarwar Gurmeet, Ajit Kumar, Ranjeet, Rekha and Lovina in this 2017 family photos. Photo: Family album
When eight-year-old Lovina’s mother Rekha Kumari, 38, died in Nagpur, Maharashtra, due to kidney failure, it was more than a personal tragedy. The death left her Pakistani Hindu family temporarily stranded in India.
Born in India on September 6, 2012, Lovina’s name is endorsed on her mother’s Pakistani passport, which became invalid when Rekha died.
The child, called Gurya (doll) at home, has never been to Pakistan. In 2010, her parents moved from Usta Mohammad in Balochistan, Pakistan to Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, a little known town in central India, leaving behind a large extended family.
Despite its population of under 10,000, Balaghat has a sizeable community of Pakistani Hindu migrants, including from Usta Mohammad (which has a population of 84,000) at the border of Balochistan and Sindh. Nagpur in Maharashtra state, which is close to Balaghat, has an even larger number of Pakistani Hindu migrants. The childhood home of Dr A.Q. Khan, ‘father’ of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, Nagpur even has a Quetta Colony.
Finding the grass not always greener on the other side, some migrants decide to return. Since the first lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, until March 17, 2021, 1,288 Pakistani Hindus have gone back, says the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi. Another 107 are on a list compiled on March 22, 2021, waiting to return.
Only rarely are there complications. In one instance, a mother crossing over to Pakistan at the Wagah border found that her baby’s passport had expired, a Pakistan High Commission official tells me. They had to stay back to get the child’s passport updated.
Rekha Kumari’s passport endorsing Lovina. Photo: By arrangement
Deciding to go back
Speaking over the phone from his rental in Balaghat, Rekha’s husband Ajeet Kumar Nagdev, 41, tells me the family went to Pakistan only once after the move, for a wedding in 2011.
Since Rehka’s passing, he has been struggling to take care of the children, cook meals, and deal with not only the emotional but the logistical aftermath of his wife’s death. She was a matriculate, more educated than Nagdev, who left school after Class VIII.
We converse in Urdu. Gurya comes to the phone to say hello. She has a slight lisp and says that she’s playing with her dolls. Her brothers, Gurmeet and Ranjet – 15 and 12 respectively – sometimes play with her too.
“All Hindus in Pakistan are Sindhi-speaking”, including all those settled in India, says Nagdev, but the children here largely speak Urdu.
Gurya misses her mother. They all do.
“What can I do? I go into the kitchen to weep, so the children don’t see me cry,” says Nagdev who has just finished cooking dinner – a potato dish, and vadas with yoghurt that the children like.
He began to help out in the kitchen and cook for the family after Rekha’s health began deteriorating, around 2017 or 2018. She developed high blood pressure, shortness of breath and kidney issues. “First one kidney, then the other.”
Finding it increasingly difficult to cope, they decided to return to Usta Mohammad to their large, well-settled business community that has been there for generations. They lived there in a large joint family home with five of Nagdev’s brothers, their families, and the families of the two deceased eldest brothers. Nagdev, the youngest of twelve, has three sisters in Usta Mohammad. Rekha’s four brothers are there too.
In India, their relatives are migrants in nuclear families – Nagdev’s brother and some cousins in Balaghat and Nagpur, and Rekha’s sisters in Pune and Indore.
The pandemic affected Nagdev’s hosiery-selling business at village marts around Balaghat and exacerbated their sense of isolation.
Pakistani hindus want to come back from hindu rashtra supa puwa 2020 ruled by 56 inches chest Shri Modi Jee
