Attari: Pakistan on Thursday refused to open the gates at the Vaga Border Post in Attari, Punjab, extinguishing dozens of its people and India stuck in the land of diplomatic deadlock from India.
No Pakistani citizens were allowed to cross the border, although Afghan trucks were admitted to India. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry cited “Brotherly Relations” with Afghanistan for exception, highlighting the selective nature of the border movement.
Pakistan had allowed its citizens to return by April 29, but until Thursday, the gates remained closed, deepening a deadlock, which has left the families torn between the two countries – the results of the visa suspension were forced to bear the results after the April 20 terrorist attack in Pahgam.
Two of them were elderly sisters, where they are – or where they would be allowed to go. Saeeda Sagir Fatima and Saeeda Jamir were born in Lahore, but a long settled gate in Srinagar, who came as a rebuke that came out as a forced exile that he feared.
Both, packed for a two-way journey, lived in India for more than 40 years after entering the physically weak and clutch bags, passports and visas.
Despite years of appeal and court order, his applications for Indian citizenship were rejected. Saeeda Sagir, who is physically disabled, cries.
“Who will take us there?” He asked referring to Pakistan. “Our last breath can be on Indian earth, and we can be kept here to rest.”
Just at a distance of yards, the same closed gate hurt two Indian sisters. Sharmin and Shakeela, who live in Karachi after marrying Pakistani men more than a decade ago, were unable to return home. He traveled to India on March 27 to see his seriously ill mother and was said to re -enter Pakistan on 1 May.
“It was surprising and shocking to find out that the boundary gates were closed.” While holding Indian passports and with their children, sisters used to wait helplessly. His brother Mohammad Shariq, who came to bid him to him, said that his life – and his families were vested in the border areas.
Adding uncertainty, a group of Pakistani laborers, mostly Hindus who were working in Rajasthan, also waited for a comeback. Despite no connection with violence, he was instructed to leave India after the Pahgam attack.
“We came here to find the work, not trouble,” Ganesh, one of the laborers, said. “Now we are not being sent anything. As minorities in Pakistan, our life is more difficult than ever.”
Local porters and Sikh volunteers of a nearby gurudwara stepped on the border to help people stuck on the border – free food and water, to help.
