Families unable to reunite as India-Pakistan border slams shut

At the Attari-Wagah border, Rishi Kumar Jisrani has spent the past two days watching chaos unfold — people clutching suitcases, clinging to tearful goodbyes — as the frontier between India and Pakistan inches toward an abrupt shutdown.

The 39-year-old Indian businessman is among many facing heartbreaking uncertainty. His Pakistani wife and their two children are now stranded on the other side of the divide.

"They told her they could let my children return, since they hold Indian passports, but not her," Jisrani said. "But how can a mother be separated from her children?"

With relations rapidly unraveling after India accused Pakistan of backing an April 22 attack on tourists in Pahalgam — an allegation Islamabad denies — the two rivals have cancelled visas, expelled each other's citizens, and given a narrow window for crossings before the border slams shut.

At the once-celebratory Wagah border — known for its dramatic daily flag-lowering ceremony — the atmosphere is heavy with grief. Cars and rickshaws arrive in a slow stream, delivering people desperate to cross in time, while families weep at police barricades.

For years, the Wagah border -- sited between Lahore in Pakistan and Amritsar in India -- has been a hugely popular tourist attraction for its evening closing ceremony.AFP

There are no clear numbers yet on how many Indians and Pakistanis are stranded on each other's side.

For Anees Mohammad, 41, the rush to the border was bittersweet. He managed to get his 76-year-old aunt, Shehar Bano, across just ahead of India’s April 29 deadline.

"She is old and sick and had come here to meet everyone in the family," Mohammad, from Indore in Madhya Pradesh, said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead under the punishing afternoon sun.
"No one knows when, or if, we will ever meet again."

The heartbreak is all too familiar on this frontier. In 1947, the end of British rule partitioned the subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, displacing millions and tearing families apart — a trauma that still echoes today.

The latest expulsions have only deepened the struggles for mixed-nationality families who often wrestle with bureaucracy even during calmer times.

Jisrani’s wife, Savita Kumari, a fellow Hindu, holds a long-term Indian visa and has often traveled between the two countries. This time, history offered no protection.

Meanwhile, hostilities along the border show no sign of cooling. The Indian army reported exchanges of gunfire with Pakistani troops for a second consecutive day, while Islamabad vowed to defend its sovereignty.

Caught painfully in the middle are people like Vikram Udasi, a 37-year-old Indian doctor. He rushed to the Wagah border when the closure was announced, hoping to reunite with his wife and four-year-old son, Aahan, only to arrive moments too late.

"My wife and our boy had gone to visit her family. Now they are stuck barely a kilometre away," Udasi said.

Authorities told his wife she must send the child across alone if she wanted him back.

An elderly Indian citizen meets with her relatives after returning from Pakistan.AFP

"Please allow families to return together," he pleaded. "Cancel tourist and short-term visas if you must, but let those with families come back."

While condemning the violence in Kashmir, Udasi expressed despair over how ordinary citizens are paying the highest price.

"Whatever the issues between the two governments, it is us who are bearing the brunt of it," he said.

"We’re caught in the middle, and we’re being torn apart."