India's decision to cancel visas of Pakistanis has brought to the fore several interesting cases. If there was a man from the twin cities of Islamabad-Rawalpindi staying in India for 17 years and voting in Indian elections, there is the case of a Pakistani woman married to a CRPF jawan and residing in Jammu. The CRPF is one of the paramilitary forces deployed in Jammu and Kashmir for counter-insurgency operations, to prevent cross-border smuggling and maintain law and order. Eyebrows are being raised on the online marriage of the CRPF jawan with the Pakistani woman and her overstaying her visa.
Minal Khan from Pakistan's Punjab met Munir Khan online, and they grew close. An online nikah was performed in May 2024, according to a news aganecy report.
She came to India in March 2025 after waiting for nine years for a visa, according to a report in Greater Kashmir.
Minal's short-term visa expired on March 22.
It isn't clear how Minal stayed back after March 22, but she received a notice to leave India after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attacks. However, following the Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 people, including tourists, Khan was served a notice to leave India. The government set a deadline of April 29 for all Pakistanis whose visas had been cancelled to return to Pakistan.
She had boarded the bus of deportees, but her lawyer, Ankur Sharma, got her last-minute relief.
MINAL KHAN'S DEPORTATION ORDER STAYED BY COURT
Minal Khan had left Jammu for the Attari-Wagah border to cross over to Pakistan when her lawyer called to inform they had secured a court stay on her deportation to Pakistan, according to Greater Kashmir.
The newspaper said that her lawyer was also a BJP spokesperson.Minal Khan's application for extension of her visa, made before the Pahalgam attack, was pending with India's home ministry, according to its report.Earlier, Minal appealed to the government to allow families to stay together.
"We should be allowed to stay with the family," quoted her as saying. "We condemn the barbaric killings of innocents in the attack. The perpetrators should be punished severely."
"We have followed all the rules. I had applied for a Long Term Visa after my short-term visa expired in March. We were told that it would be cleared. But after the attack, I'm being separated from my husband. Like me, several children are being separated from their mother or father. This is inhuman. We pray to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliver justice to us," Greater Kashmir quoted her as saying.
QUESTIONS RAISED OVER PAKISTANI MARRIED TO CRPF JAWAN
The stay on Minal Khan's deportation came even as the Centre allowed Pakistani nationals to return to their country via the Wagah-Attari border until further orders. The latest directive from the Home Ministry modified an earlier order that had declared the border would be closed on April 30.
"The order has been reviewed and, in partial modification, it is now ordered that Pakistani nationals may be allowed to exit India to go into Pakistan from the Integrated Check Post at Attari till further orders, with due clearance," the order stated.
India had announced last week that all visas issued to Pakistani nationals, except those under a few special categories, would stand revoked on April 27, and that they must leave the country by April 29.In the six days following the Centre’s directive, as many as 786 Pakistani nationals, including 55 diplomats and their support staff, have left India via the Attari-Wagah border. From Pakistan, 1,465 Indians have crossed over into India.
As Minal Khan's case came to be reported, people questioned how a CRPF jawan was allowed to marry a Pakistani woman. Some alleged it was "marriage-trapping".
Others pointed out the fact that she was here even after her short-term visa expired on March 22.
"Isn't it scary" asked a person on X, while another asked if "more of the Army/CRPF jawans have connections with Pakistan". Calling the issue serious, the person asked for an NIA probe.
There have been dozens of instances of cross-border romance, which have also been celebrated by Bollywood in the form of movies like Henna (1991) and Veer-Zaara (2004). It's true love knows no borders. But the marriage of a Pakistani woman to a CRPF jawan from Jammu and Kashmir has raised concern.