<p>Pakistani officials on Friday detained 242 Pakistani Hindu pilgrims travelling to India with valid visas issued by the Indian High Commission in Pakistan, at the Wagah border, letting them to enter India only after seven hours of interrogation.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The Pakistani media on Thursday reported that around 250 Hindus from the Sindh and Balochistan provinces left for India after being allegedly harassed. Their shops and houses were vandalised while women were forced to convert to Islam, they complained. A section of the Pakistani media subsequently linked the exodus with the recent kidnapping of a Hindu woman from Jacobabad in Sindh.<br /><br />Conspiracy<br /><br />Alleging “conspiracy” against Pakistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said he has already asked the Indian High Commission in Pakistan to explain why it issued visas to such a large number of Hindu pilgrims.<br /><br />Official sources in New Delhi, however, countered Malik’s claim. No such explanation was sought from the Indian High Commission, they said, adding that issue of visas for Hindu or Muslim pilgrims was neither unusual nor unprecedented.<br /><br />“Grant of visa to Pakistani nationals is governed by the India-Pakistan Visa Agreement of 1974, which was subsequently amended in 1986 and 1990. Executive instructions are issued by the Government of India from time to time,” official sources told Deccan Herald in New Delhi.<br /><br />The incident comes close on the heels of media reports on persecution of minority community in Pakistan. It was learnt that only two families were initially allowed to cross over to India as they had no-objection certificate from Pakistan’s Interior Ministry. Others were left stranded for several hours and allowed to enter India only after a special team from the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency interrogated them on the purpose of visit.<br /><br />The pilgrims had visas valid for 33 days. New Delhi, meanwhile, brushed aside allegations of a conspiracy. “On the contrary, Pakistan’s reaction contradicted the spirit of the agreement to liberalise the bilateral visa regime to allow more people-to-people contact between the two neighbours,” sources pointed out.<br /><br />Between 2009 and 2011, the government of Punjab forwarded the Ministry of Home Affairs 148 applications by Pakistani Hindus seeking Indian citizenship. They applied for Indian citizenship after traveling to the country on regular short-term visas. The ministry, in March 2012, informed Rajya Sabha that 16 of the 148 applications were sanctioned, 119 pending and 13 rejected.<br /> <br /><br /><br /></p>
<p>Pakistani officials on Friday detained 242 Pakistani Hindu pilgrims travelling to India with valid visas issued by the Indian High Commission in Pakistan, at the Wagah border, letting them to enter India only after seven hours of interrogation.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The Pakistani media on Thursday reported that around 250 Hindus from the Sindh and Balochistan provinces left for India after being allegedly harassed. Their shops and houses were vandalised while women were forced to convert to Islam, they complained. A section of the Pakistani media subsequently linked the exodus with the recent kidnapping of a Hindu woman from Jacobabad in Sindh.<br /><br />Conspiracy<br /><br />Alleging “conspiracy” against Pakistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said he has already asked the Indian High Commission in Pakistan to explain why it issued visas to such a large number of Hindu pilgrims.<br /><br />Official sources in New Delhi, however, countered Malik’s claim. No such explanation was sought from the Indian High Commission, they said, adding that issue of visas for Hindu or Muslim pilgrims was neither unusual nor unprecedented.<br /><br />“Grant of visa to Pakistani nationals is governed by the India-Pakistan Visa Agreement of 1974, which was subsequently amended in 1986 and 1990. Executive instructions are issued by the Government of India from time to time,” official sources told Deccan Herald in New Delhi.<br /><br />The incident comes close on the heels of media reports on persecution of minority community in Pakistan. It was learnt that only two families were initially allowed to cross over to India as they had no-objection certificate from Pakistan’s Interior Ministry. Others were left stranded for several hours and allowed to enter India only after a special team from the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency interrogated them on the purpose of visit.<br /><br />The pilgrims had visas valid for 33 days. New Delhi, meanwhile, brushed aside allegations of a conspiracy. “On the contrary, Pakistan’s reaction contradicted the spirit of the agreement to liberalise the bilateral visa regime to allow more people-to-people contact between the two neighbours,” sources pointed out.<br /><br />Between 2009 and 2011, the government of Punjab forwarded the Ministry of Home Affairs 148 applications by Pakistani Hindus seeking Indian citizenship. They applied for Indian citizenship after traveling to the country on regular short-term visas. The ministry, in March 2012, informed Rajya Sabha that 16 of the 148 applications were sanctioned, 119 pending and 13 rejected.<br /> <br /><br /><br /></p>
