India deports kids at Wagah as mother looks helplessly

In a deeply distressing scene at the Wagah Border on Monday, Indian authorities separated an Indian mother from her two young children, handing the minors over to Pakistani officials while the mother watched helplessly from the Indian side.

The incident has sparked outrage and raised serious humanitarian and legal concerns.

The mother, Sana Bilal, a resident of Meerut, India, and a holder of an Indian passport, was married to a Pakistani citizen, Bilal Gujjar, and had been residing with him in Karachi.

She had travelled to India on a 45-day visa to visit her parents. However, what began as a familial visit soon turned into a traumatic ordeal.

According to Sana, she arrived at the Attari border on April 25 with her children, one-year-old Mahnoor and three-year-old Mustafa, after the Indian government directed all Pakistani nationals to return home.

However, Indian authorities barred her from crossing into Pakistan with her children, citing a technicality: Sana is an Indian national, while both her children hold Pakistani citizenship. Therefore, officials claimed, the children must return to Pakistan without her.

On Monday, the heartbreaking handover took place at the zero line of the Wagah Border.

In a scene that left even security personnel and bystanders in tears, the weeping mother surrendered her crying children to their father, who was waiting on the Pakistani side.

Witnesses described the moment as agonising, with the mother pleading for compassion and the children clinging to her desperately.