The brothers, born to Indian mother and Pakistani father, applied for citizenship eight years back

Three Pakistani nationals - Mohammed Sanan, 29, his younger brothers Ruman, 27, and Saif, 25, were granted Indian citizenship by the Government of India. Revenue Divisional Officer T. Vinod Kumar handed over the citizenship copies to them in the presence of their mother Faiz Unnisa here on Tuesday.

After the perusal of their applications for citizenship, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued orders.

The orders were issued under Section 5(1)f of Citizenship Act-1955 on April 24 approving their appeal. The citizenship document copies No:243; 244; and 245 subsequently were sent to the district authorities.

They had applied for citizenship some eight years ago.

Ms. Faiz, daughter of late Hafeez Abdul Rehman and Samdani Begum, married Mohammed Abdul Nadeem Javed of Bahawalpur in Punjab province of Pakistan in 1988. After marriage, she moved to Pakistan, but did not give up her Indian citizenship. All her three sons were born there. After divorcing her Pakistani husband in 2004, she moved to Nizamabad along with her three sons and they have been staying here on a long term visa (LTV).

Refusing to reveal the details, Ms. Faiz and her children immediately left the RDO chambers after receiving the citizenship documents.

According to sources, she, along with her children and her siblings, has been running a private school in the old city for several years now. Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists arrived at the RDO office to stage a protest against giving citizenship to the trio. Realising that they had already left, they called off the protest.

When contacted, District Collector M. Ram Mohan Rao said the Government of India granted the citizenship to the three Pakistani nationals only after being convinced that there will not be any law and order problem with them. “I hope there will not be any problem from them, and or to them from anyone. Anyway, I will take the issue to the notice of the Commissioner of Police as regards their protection,” he told The Hindu.