Pahalgam attack fallout: ‘Shoot us, but don’t throw us out of India’

Representative image (AI-generated)

BALASORE: “If we have done anything wrong, let the govt shoot us. But don’t throw us out of the country,” pleaded 72-year-old Rezia Sultana of Soro town in Odisha‘s Balasore district, who has lived in India since she was four.
She is one of the many Pakistani nationals who have been served notice to leave India in the aftermath of the terror attack at Pahalgam.
To make matters worse, Rezia is battling kidney-related issues and has a critical medical appointment in Bhubaneswar on May 10.
Her family has appealed to the government to reconsider the decision and withdraw the deportation notice.
Rezia’s father, Haider Ali, originally from Bihar, had migrated after Partition to Bangladesh and later Pakistan, where she was born in 1953.
Four years later, Haider returned to India. Since then, Rezia has built her life in this country, marrying Sheikh Samsuddin of Soro and giving birth to two sons. Her husband passed away in 2023.