Lahore: India’s traditional obstinacy remains, visas could not be issued to Pakistani pilgrims to attend Hazrat Amir Khusro’s Urs.
The Pakistani pilgrims are scheduled to leave for India on Tuesday tomorrow, while the Urs celebrations of Hazrat Amir Khusro will continue in India from April 23 to April 30.
According to sources in the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Indian High Commission was supposed to hand over the passports and visas of pilgrims to religious affairs today, but the commission has not yet received any instructions from New Delhi regarding visas.
It should be noted that 199 Pakistani pilgrims have reached Lahore today to participate in Urs. In this regard, the officials of the Ministry of Religious Affairs say that if the visas are issued late at night, the pilgrims will be able to depart on Wednesday.
Unlike India, Pakistan regularly issues visas to Indian Sikhs and Hindu pilgrims to visit their religious sites and attend important festivals in Pakistan.
Pakistan had issued visas to around 2500 Sikh pilgrims this month who have returned to India today after completing their 10-day pilgrimage.
(function(d, s, id){
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3&appId=770767426360150”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.7”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));