Tahira Sultana, a citizen of Pakistan, has been living in Meerut with her family for over a decade now. She is among the 40 Pakistani Muslims in the city who have applied for Indian citizenship and are awaiting approval.
Tahira who was originally from India but shifted to Karachi after her marriage to a relative there, does not want to go back to Pakistan.
“I somehow did not like Pakistan, so I came back with my family to India a decade ago. I had been living here on long-term visa and now have applied for Indian citizenship,” she said.
Defying popular perception, it is not only minorities but also a number of Muslim citizens of Pakistan have refused to return to their native country, declaring it a “dangerous place”. Many of them have been living in Meerut for several years.
According to a letter from a senior intelligence officer in Meerut, there are 42 Pakistani citizens, including two Hindus, who have applied for citizenship. Their candidature was recently cleared by the Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) in its report to the District Magistrate of Meerut.
According to the letter, a copy of which is with The Hindu , LIU officer V.K. Sharma has recommended Indian citizenship to 33 of the 42 Pakistani citizens in the first stage of investigation.
Santkauri, one of the two Hindus on the list, came to India in 1983 where she got married to one Darshan Lal. Since then she has been staying in the city on a long-term visa. She told The Hindu that “most of her family members had shifted to India and were living in different parts of Uttar Pradesh.”
Most of the Muslims in the list are those whose parents had migrated to Pakistan during Partition, but who later returned to India in the early and late eighties due to reasons like business and marriage.
“My parents belonged to U.P., but they shifted to Karachi during Partition. I got married to one of my cousins here and that’s how I came to Meerut. Now I do not want to go back to Pakistan. India is a much more peaceful place to stay. Besides, I have got my work here,” said Mohammad Aslam, who stays in the Lisadhi Gate area of Meerut.
