After decades in J&K, 65 face charges over ‘illegal stay’. 15 of them are dead

According to officials, the 65 accused had entered India on valid Pakistani passports and lived in Jammu, Poonch, Rajouri and Kathua districts for four to five decades. Several had married locals and had children and grandchildren, officials said.

The Jammu and Kashmir Crime Branch has filed chargesheets against 65 people, many of them Pakistani nationals accused of overstaying their visas. Fifteen of the accused are dead, officials said.

The latest charge sheet, filed on October 23 before the Special Mobile Magistrate in Kathua, names five accused, three of whom are dead. The first charge sheet, against 12 people including four who were dead, was filed before the Munsiff Court in Jammu on November 24 last year, officials said.

The development comes a year after the police crackdown launched after the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 civilians. The Centre cancelled short-term visas issued to Pakistani nationals and set a deadline for their departure.

The move affected Pakistani nationals, particularly women who had travelled to the region on visas after marrying residents, with the police seeking to detain and deport several people.

According to officials, the 65 accused had entered India on valid Pakistani passports and lived in Jammu, Poonch, Rajouri and Kathua districts for four to five decades. Several had married locals and had children and grandchildren, officials said.

The chargesheets followed investigations into eight cases linked to FIR No. 16/2024, registered at the Special Crime Wing (SCW) police station in Jammu on information that Pakistani nationals, including PoK residents who arrived on valid travel documents in the late 1970s and thereafter, were staying illegally in the Jammu division.

Investigators alleged that some had fraudulently obtained Indian identity documents by concealing their foreign nationality, while others had secured government jobs using forged documents.

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A Special Investigation Team constituted by Crime Branch headquarters investigated the cases under relevant provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946, the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, read with Rule 6 of the Passport (Entry into India) Rules, 1950, and the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), officials said.

The Indian spouses, family members and others allegedly involved in the conspiracy have also been chargesheeted, they added.

The crackdown following the Pahalgam attack affected Pakistani nationals, particularly women who had travelled to the region on visas after marrying local residents.

In several cases, the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court stayed deportations. These included the case of police head constable Ifthkar Ali and his eight siblings, who were already on their way to the Attari border. The court also halted the deportation of Menal Khan, a Pakistani national who had married a CRPF jawan in Jammu. The jawan was later dismissed from service for allegedly concealing his marriage to a Pakistani national.