Mystery, spat as 107 Pakistanis 'missing' since 2012
- Quaid Najmi
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
Mumbai: The state is a mute witness to an ugly public brawl between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde over the exact number of Pakistan nationals who may be allegedly ‘missing’ in the state.
At a rally in Buldhana on Sunday Shinde roared and claimed that 107 Pakistanis are reportedly untraceable in the state, embarrassing the Mahayuti alliance administration.
Attempting a damage control from Pune, Fadnavis promptly made a surgical strike on Shinde’s claims, asserting that “no Pakistani is missing in the state and all are accounted for”, as the process to pack them off to Pakistan is in full swing.
However, exactly 12 years ago, the (then) Congress-Nationalist Congress Party regime had admitted on record that 107 Pak nationals were ‘untraceable’ in the state and all efforts were on to trace them out by the police and other agencies.
On March 18, 2013, the former Home Minister, the late R. R. Patil had given a written reply in the legislature that till December 31, 2012, as many as 107 Pakistanis had gone ‘underground’, sparking concerns.
He also cited the figures of other Pakistanis staying here legally on valid visas of different categories, or extended visas, plus 60 more living illegally of whom two were in jail.
Thereafter, the matter lay buried and never again came to the fore, till last week’s terror strike in Pahalgam in which 26 tourists, including 6 from Maharashtra, were massacred in the meadowy Baisaran Valley.
Politicians and security experts, speaking off-the-record, frowned at how such a sensitive matter could be raised in a public rally, that too by a person not directly concerned with the state Home Department, or even the counter to it.
Nevertheless, they argue that being a senior state functionary, Shinde’s words carry weight and the people of the state are entitled to know the truth about the so-called Pakistanis whose whereabouts were/are not known.
A question bugging political circles and security experts is “from where did Shinde get the figure of 107” in the current scenario, or was he relying on the information already available on official record.
Although anything pertaining to Pakistan is considered ultra-sensitive, in view of the recent incidents in Pahalgam, the Mumbai Police or home department must shed light on the status of the purportedly ‘missing’ Pakistanis, from 2013, suggest the specialists.
Experts decry public debate
A security expert and former Additional Deputy Commissioner, State Intelligence Department (SID) Shirish Inamdar, reluctantly agreed to go on-record by stating that “since this involves a matter of national security, the citizens have a right to the know the truth”.
“The subject is already in public domain, so the government should quickly dispel false notions and reveal the genuine data. What was the progress in the weeding out operations after the 2013 admission in the Legislature? Whether that figure (107) - went up, or down, or remains static - and why?” Inamdar told The Perfect Voice.
A former senior police official, preferring anonymity, said that it’s the job of the Mumbai Police Special Branch-II, Pakistan Desk to keep tabs on all the Pakistanis entering/leaving the state via Mumbai.
Citing the examples of Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley and Pakistan-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana – whose involvement in the 26/11 terror strikes came to fore – he cautioned that if there are any such elements ‘missing’, they must be tracked down priority to rule out the likelihood of mischief in future.