Divorce has left her ‘Stateless’

Pakistan’s High Commission in India has approached legal experts in New Delhi to help Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s (PoK) resident Kubra Gillani, 27, who has become “Stateless” after her husband, a former militant, divorced her in the Kashmir valley in November last year.

Sources said Pakistan has engaged a Delhi-based lawyer to study the case. Ms. Gillani is a resident of Domail area in PoK capital Muzaffarbad.

The Hindu was the first newspaper to report the plight of Ms. Gillani. She had arrived in Kashmir with her husband, taking up the Omar Abdullah’s government’s rehabilitation policy for youth who crossed into PoK for arms training in the 1990s. Despite applying a number of times, Ms. Gillani failed to get either a passport or permanent resident certificate in J&K. Now, after her divorce, she can’t travel to her home in PoK as she does not have travel documents.

“I am stranded without a permanent place now. I am hopeful both India and Pakistan will address my issue. I just want to be with my family [in PoK] again,” Ms. Gillani told The Hindu.

Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has appealed to India and Pakistan to “see the case through the prism of humanity”.

The Mirwaiz said Ms. Gillani should be provided a “permit” to travel.

Meanwhile, PoK prime minister Raja Mohammad Farooq Haider Khan, according to an official spokesman there, said all measures would be taken to contact the woman in Srinagar and bring her back. “The government will contact the Foreign Ministry. It will fulfil its responsibility in this regard.”