Srinagar: In yet another display of sheer callousness, J&K Police has denied passport to a fifteen year old girl who has won a US scholarship under India-US Youth Exchange Study. Sufaira Nazir from Beeru, Budgam, who was scheduled to leave for the United States in the first week of August has been deprived of this opportunity just because her uncle was a militant when she wasnt even born.
Sufaira, an orphanage inmate, is not able to come to terms with the shock.
I was extremely delighted when I heard I had qualified all the tests for the scholarship and had to leave for US this August, but to my utter disappointment, government shattered all my dreams by not approving my passport just because my uncle was a former militant, said a dejected Sufaira.
Sufaira said she had applied for the passport in April but didnt receive clearance from CID because of her uncles past affiliation with militancy, this despite his surrendering before the authorities under a rehabilitation programme.
I am not a militant; I want to go to America for my studies to fulfil my dreams, she said, adding, My uncle is living a normal life now, why are they creating hindrances for me?
Following media focus, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah promised an action.
“I have asked CID to look in to the passport case of Sufaira,” tweeted the CM.
Zahoor Ahmad Tak, Patron, Jammu and Kashmir Yateem Trust, said, Sufaira is the first girl from Kashmir to get this scholarship and she has worked hard for it. It is sheer injustice that she is being denied passport by the authorities for no fault of hers. She belongs to a very poor family. It is a golden opportunity for her to become an inspiration for other orphans and students from dowmtrodden backgrounds.
Sufaira is currently studying in Class XI in an orphanage school, Gulshan-e-Banat at Gopalpora in Budgam district, which provides education to orphans across the valley.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs had said it will wait for the state CID’s clearance before issuing the passport. “We gave passport to a similar case within five days of State CID clearance,” it said.
IG (CID), B. Srinivasan, while denying the allegations, said, We have received her application just three months before and we have cleared it.
It is noteworthy that thousands of applicants have been denied passports in Kashmir on similar grounds. Various Police agencies withheld verification certificates on filmsy grounds and they dont even bother to inform the applicants the grounds of denial as stipulated by the passport act.
Those denied travel document includes journalists, doctors and other professionals. A senior journalist said police verification for the passports of his three member family is pending for clearance with the police department for last 10 months.
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