150 Pakistani Sindhi brides reach India for weddings months after Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "150 Pakistani Sindhi brides reach India for weddings months after Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor")
Indians and Pakistanis gather to watch the beating retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border between Pakistan and India, on the outskirts of Amritsar on August 14, 2025, Photograph: (AFP)
Over 150 Pakistani Sindhi brides have reached India for weddings after the Pahalgam terror attack, Operation Sindoor and the closure of the Wagah-Attari border.
Over 150 Pakistani Sindhi brides who were previously engaged to Indian men but could not travel to India in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, followed by Operation Sindoor and the closure of the Wagah-Attari border, have finally managed to travel to the country for their wedding plans.
Community leader Rajesh Jhambia said that the Union Government later issued visas to the brides and their relatives, allowing them to reach India through transit routes in other countries. “The long wait is over, finally,” Jhambia said on Sunday.
Jhambia, who works for Sindhi migrants from Pakistan, told PTI that the brides and approximately 450 accompanying relatives were mandated to travel strictly by air and utilising connecting flights to reach India.
"The brides and their kin have arrived in India through transit routes via Muscat, Dubai, Sri Lanka and other countries," said Jhambia.
Jhambia said that due to hassle free visa and movement through the Wagah-Attari border had allowed families from Pakistan's Sindh province to engage in cross-border matrimonial relationships. However, following the major terrorist attack that occurred in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, leaving 26 civilians dead. India, in response, launched Operation Sindoor and closed off the Wagah-Attari gates, cancelling land border cross-country travel. "There were about 150 brides who were to be married in Nagpur, Raipur, Jodhpur, Pune and other cities in India," said Jhambia.
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They then approached the Raipur-based Sant Yudhishtirlal Shadaani, spiritual head of Shadaani Darbar, a prominent Hindu religious shrine in Ghotki in Pakistan's Sindh province. The temple management approached the Ministry of Home Affairs and urged the authorities to allow visas for these families to enable them to travel to India. The MHA then authorised special air-travel conditional visas, allowing the first major batch of brides to arrive between April and August 2026
"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," said Jhambia.
Currently, community leader Jhambia said that nearly 300 more Pakistani-Sindhi women have requested the Indian government to issue visas to them as well and remain on the waiting list.
