India refuses to grant Pakistani pilgrims visas

India continues to violate the 1974 Pakistan-India Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines

Scores of Pakistani pilgrims intending to travel to Ajmer in connection with the Urs of Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti have not been issued visas by the Indian High Commission.

According to Express News, hundreds of pilgrims travel every year from Pakistan to India to attend Chisti’s Urs. New Delhi is bound by a bilateral protocol on visits to religious shrines to grant 500 Pakistani pilgrims visas for the event.



In 2017, India stopped Pakistani pilgrims from attending the Urs of Khawaja Nizamuddin Aulia in Delhi. Another 200 hundred Hindu pilgrims were stopped from proceeding to Pakistan in connection with a Hindu festival earlier in February, 2018.

The pilgrims were set to take part in Maha Shivratri celebrations, according to a Hindu leader. He said the move constituted a violation of the aforementioned protocol