A tiny puzzle
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Buddhal (Rajouri), May 11
What should be the nationality of a 10-month old boy, whose mother is an Indian citizen, while his father, a Pakistani militant commander.

Ten-month-old Junior Inqualabi was born to Parveen Akhter, daughter of a nomad Muhammad Bashir of Dhaleri in Budhal area here and Abdullah Inqualabi, a Pakistani national and divisional commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen-Pir Panjal Range militant outfit.

Locals sources said Abdullah Inqualabi was chairman of the Unified Jehad council — a group of militants of various outfits, including the Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), Al-Badr Mujahideen and the Hizbul-Mujahideen-Pir Panjal range — who joined hands after security forces gunned down their top militant commanders.

Abdullah used to visit Dhaleri area frequently and fell in love with Parveen Akhter, a local nomad girl, who also reciprocated in a positive manner. "The duo got married in 2006. Parveen gave birth to a baby boy in 2007, whom Inqualabi named Junior Inqualabi", said one of the locals on the condition of anonymity.

"Abdullah Inqualabi is still active in the area and giving security forces sleepless nights," he added.

Meanwhile, Constitutional experts said the conditions for acquiring Indian citizenship as per the provision of the Citizenship Act, 1955, were — a person born in India on or after December 3, 2004, was considered a citizen of India by birth, if both the parents were Indian citizens, or one of the parents was a citizen of India and the other was not an "illegal migrant" at the time of his birth.

They further said an "illegal migrant" as defined in Section 2(1)(b) of the Act was termed a "foreigner" who entered India without a valid passport or other prescribed travel documents, or with a valid passport or other prescribed travel documents, but remained in India beyond the permitted time period.

"In this case, the child's mother is an Indian citizen and his father, being a militant, is an illegal migrant. So as per the Constitution of India, the baby does not fulfil the conditions for being an Indian citizen", informed Vijay Sehgal, a Constitutional expert at Jammu."