‘What’s our fault?’: India’s expulsion of Pakistanis still splits families

After Pahalgam attack in April, India deported 800 Pakistanis. Children separated from parents still can’t meet them.

Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – The silence of a narrow alley in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-administered Kashmir, is broken by the rehearsed beckoning of street vendors and the restless cries of two little children.

“Auntie, please take me to my mother; the police took her away,” shouts three-year-old Hussein, as he and his sister Noorie, a year younger than him, cling to the window of their one-room house, their faces pressed against rusted iron bars.

Their father, Majid*, says the two have been calling out like that to almost every passer-by since their mother, Samina*, a Pakistani national, was forcibly taken away by Indian authorities and deported more than seven months ago.

The family’s ordeal began a week after half a dozen gunmen, a couple of them alleged to be Pakistani nationals, stormed a scenic tourist spot in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam area and shot 26 people dead on April 22, 2025 in one of the worst attacks in the disputed region.