PoK-born man claims he is Pak national, seeks deportation

A man, who had claimed to be from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, on Wednesday filed an affidavit in the Bombay high court saying that he was a Pakistani citizen and wanted to be deported to the neighbouring country.

Siraj Khan claimed that he was born in Manshera are awhich was then in PoK but added that this area now falls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan.

Khan, who sneaked into India when he was a child, said his parents were now citizens of Pakistan and hence he was seeking deportation to that country.

Earlier, in a petition, he said he was from PoK and should be deported to that place. However, the court sought to know from the central government what was its stand in the matter and whether PoK was located in India or in Pakistan.

The court had also sought to know whether a man from PoK staying in India can be prosecuted under the Foreigner Citizens Act and Passport Act terming him as a foreign national.

Khan had urged in the petition for a direction to police to deport him back to his village Manshera and also to quash the case registered against him for entering India without a valid passport.

According to Siraj, he had entered Indian territory by "mistake" when he was nine years old and continued staying here. He also got married to a girl from Mumbai.

In 2000, when Siraj urged police to deport him, he was booked under various sections of Foreigner Citizens Act and Passport Act.

In an earlier hearing, the state government had told the court that PoK was part of Indian territory and hence it was withdrawing the case registered against Siraj.

Siraj's lawyer Ejaz Naqvi argued that Siraj and his wife are Pakistani nationals and should be hence sent back. The matter would be heard on October 15 by Justice Abhay Oka.

The high court had on Tuesday directed the state government to clarify its stand on whether it can prosecute a person from PoK claiming to be a Pakistani national. "If the statement of the petitioner that he is a Pakistani national is not ignored then the stand taken by the state would be incorrect," Justice Abhay Oka had said.