J&K High Court seeks status on retrieval of Pakistan-born son of Indian deported after Pahalgam attack

The J&K High Court on Friday (October 30, 2026) sought the status of the case of Aasim Sajjad aka Fardin Sajjad, who was deported to Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack, and later the court directed his retrieval to join the parents.

Justice Rahul Bharati directed lawyer Monika Kohli, Senior Additional Advocate General (AAG), “to apprise this Court about the latest inputs available”.

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Referring to the judgment passed on March 25 this year, the court said, “It [judgement] was meant to procure Mr. Sajjad, who has been shifted to Pakistan but has been directed to be retrieved to join the parental company.”

The court directed the AAG to “apprise the Court” on the next date of hearing on November 2.

Earlier this year, the court had instructed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to retrieve the Pakistan-born son of an Indian, who was deported after the Pahalgam attack from J&K to Pakistan. 

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According to the father, Sajjad Ahmed, 43, his 18-year-old son was issued a ‘Leave India Notice’ in April 2025, even as he was “pursuing his application for extension of long-term visa”. The court had directed the MHA to consider and grant citizenship against the application filed by him under Section 5 (1) (d) of Citizenship Act, 1955.

“Being an Indian Citizen, this court, is of the considered opinion that having regard to the sacrosanct human values and rights, the court must step in to pass certain directions,” the court held then.

Mr. Ahmed, a resident of Rajouri’s Budhal, had gone to Pakistan on a valid passport in 2005 to meet his relatives. During his stay, Ahmed married Shabnum Kouser, a resident of Pakistan’s Gujranwala, and delivered a baby in 2006 there. The Indian father returned to India in 2007 and would apply for extension of visa on yearly basis on marriage grounds. In 2013, the wife of Ahmed died “due to a fatal illness”. The minor son was granted the extension of visa till 2015.

According to the family’s plea, the father moved several applications through proper channels before the competent authority for seeking declaration of his son as a citizen of India, “but neither the son had been declared as citizen of India nor visa extended in his favour”.

The father alleged his son was “taken forcibly in a police van and deported to Pakistan via Wagah Border”.

Scores of Pakistan-born citizens, married to citizens of J&K, were deported from the Union Territory after the Pahalgam attack, which left 26 civilians dead. 

Published - October 30, 2026 11:35 pm IST