Operation Sindoor and the closure of the Attari route disrupted weddings of Pakistani Sindhi women engaged to Indian men.
Following appeals, India issued visas allowing 150 brides and their families to travel through third countries for weddings.
Nearly 300 more women in Pakistan are waiting for visas to join their partners and families in India.
After Operation Sindoor Visa Hurdle, 150 Pakistani Brides Reach India
After Operation Sindoor halted Wagah-Attari travel, 150 Pakistani Sindhi brides and families reached India through third countries for weddings, with 300 more awaiting visas
Summary
Hassle-free visas and movement through the Wagah-Attari border had allowed families from Pakistan’s Sindh province to marry their daughters in India for years. However, that changed after India launched Operation Sindoor and shut the visa and border routes for Sindhi visitors.
The decision put the weddings of at least 150 Pakistani women on hold. They had been engaged to men in India and were waiting to settle down in their marital homes.
“The long wait is over, finally,” said Rajesh Jhambia, a community leader from Nagpur, on Sunday.
After much effort, the Centre issued visas to the Sindhi women and their relatives to visit India for their weddings.
“The brides and their kin have arrived in India through transit routes via Muscat, Dubai, Sri Lanka and other countries,” Jhambia, who works for Sindhi migrants from Pakistan, told PTI.
He said members of the Sindhi community used to visit India through the Wagah-Attari border in Punjab for such weddings. “Everything changed after Operation Sindoor, as the government rejected visas to all those who were planning to visit the country via the Attari route,” he said.
Operation Sindoor was a 2025 military campaign launched by India in response to a deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed the lives of 26 civilians.
Cross-Border Weddings
Jhambia said they then approached the Raipur-based Sant Yudhishtirlal Shadaani, the spiritual head of Shadaani Darbar, a prominent Hindu religious shrine in Ghotki in Pakistan’s Sindh province.
He said the Shadaani Darbar started preparing a list of Pakistani women who were engaged to men in India. “There were about 150 brides who were to be married in Nagpur, Raipur, Jodhpur, Pune and other cities in India,” he said.
The temple contacted the Ministry of Home Affairs with the list and urged the authorities to facilitate visas for these brides and their families to enable them to travel to India. The MHA allowed the visitors from across the border to enter India only on the condition that they would have to travel by air, he said.
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“Since April this year, 150 brides and their families from Pakistan have travelled to India via Dubai, Oman, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries for the weddings. These include 15 cases from Nagpur,” he said.
Jhambia said there are nearly 300 more such women in Pakistan waiting and that they have requested the Indian government to issue visas to them as well.
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