India grants visas to 100 Pakistanis

Move comes after Bisaria intensifies efforts to relax strict conditions

LAHORE: The Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria has intensified efforts for issuing visas to Pakistan as a result of which 100 Pakistani visitors have now been given visas to participate in the Urs of Hazrat Khawaja Alauddin Ali Ahmed Sabir.

Earlier, owing to tense relations between the two countries, the Indian embassy had not only made issuance of visa to Pakistani citizens difficult but had also rejected more than 80% of all requests.

However, recently the Pakistan hockey team was also allowed to travel to India as Bisaria in the past few weeks has been actively pursuing the Indian government to relax its harsh stance on granting visas to Pakistani nationals.



The Indian high commissioner is also said to have visited India thrice in the past three weeks to convince the interior and foreign ministries to grant visas to Pakistanis as a positive reciprocal to Pakistan’s issuance of visa to Indians who can visit the country for religious purposes.

Bisaria along with the deputy high commissioner has also visited different cities of Pakistan including Lahore and met different business, political and social personalities and in these meetings he received several complaints regarding non-issuance of visas by the Indian authorities.