Ahmedabad: An FIR filed recently in the city has drawn attention for listing an unusual address: ‘Pakistan Colony, Railway Colony, Sabarmati’. The name, used informally by locals for more than three decades, refers to a section of land behind the railway colony that was once a no-man’s land. Despite urban development, the nickname endured and is still casually used.Interestingly, it isn’t the only place in Ahmedabad with such unusual nomenclature. In fact, this isn’t the only ‘Pakistan’ located in the city. In Vatva’s Char Maliya area, you will find not just ‘Pakistan’, but also ‘Sri Lanka’, and ‘Bangladesh’ — localities that earned the names based on the ethnic makeup of the residents.Though never officially recognised, these names are widely used in local speech and continue to surface in legal documents.The most recent example came on May 16, when Sabarmati police registered an FIR in a prohibition case and listed the address of one accused as ‘Pakistan Colony’ in Sabarmati.According to longtime residents and railway staff, the name ‘Pakistan’ dates back more than 35 years. Recalling the origin of the term, a loco pilot and joint secretary of the Western Railways Employees’ Union (WREU), Sanjay Suryabali said, “There used to be a barren and secluded area behind the railway tracks and adjacent to the railway colony. Railway employees, frustrated by the lack of facilities beyond a certain point, began calling it “the border”. Over time, that name morphed into ‘Pakistan’.” Even as the area was developed, the name stuck.An FIR filed with Vatva police on April 13 in a murder case cited that “the victim died during a brawl near the gate of Pakistan Char Maliya (Vatva).” Another FIR, filed with the detection of crime branch (DCB) on Aug 7, 2024, about a raid under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, listed the address of an accused as ‘Gareeb Awaas Yojna, Sri Lanka, Vatva, Ahmedabad city’.The Vatva locality has long had blocks informally named after neighbouring South Asian countries. Vatva inspector Pravina Zala explained that residents themselves coined the names based on community clusters. “These areas are ghettos of various communities, including Bengali Muslims and people from the southern states. That is why you will find names like ‘Pakistan’, ‘Sri Lanka’, ‘Bangladesh’ and even ‘Bharat’ in Char Maliya,” she said.Sabarmati inspector H N Patel was unavailable for comment.
