Sufaira Jan is a 15 year old girl from Budgam in Jammu & Kashmir. She was about to go to US for her studies, but a Passport was denied to her on grounds of Militant background of her Uncle.
Her Uncle was a militant and surrendered even before she was born. Her uncle now leads a normal life, while she lives at an orphanage in Budgam.
She was awarded one-year scholarship under the India-US Youth Exchange Study programme. For this she had to clear four exams and an interview in the US embassy in Delhi in March. She was considered as an orphanage for the whole Orphanage.
However this was not the end to her troubles.  The Jammu and Kashmir state government did not give her a clearance, based on the state CID’s (Criminal Investigation Department) records on her uncle, a former militant who surrendered in 1995.
The government doesn’t understand that if my uncle was a militant in the past, and is now surrendered and lives a normal life, what is my fault? I am not a militant
However there are rays of hopes for her as Jammu & Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah has taken cognizance of her case.
In a Tweet Omar Abdullah said, “Needless to say she will NOT be denied a passport because of her uncle’s past. All such pending cases of previous denials are being cleared”.