NEW DELHI – As many as forty-five Pakistani citizens were detained in India’s Gujrat for allegedly violating visa rules, it emerged on Sunday.
The Pakistanis belonged to the Hindu community and were detained in Gujarat’s Banaskantha for overstaying after their visas expired and their applications for long-term visas (LTV) were rejected, a police official confirmed.
Local intelligence bureau police inspector, Santosh Dhobi said the Pakistanis were detained from Akoli village and the process to send them back to Pakistan was underway.
“These Pakistani nationals were in India to visit Haridwar in Uttarakhand and came to Banaskantha to meet their relatives. They were in India for the last two months on a valid Visa. They were overstaying as their visas expired and their LTVs were not approved,” Dhobi said and added that they were in Banaskantha for the last four to five days.
Pakistan and India keep on detaining each other’s citizens due to multiple issues ranging from visa violations to allegations of spying.
Earlier, last month, both countries exchanged lists of each other’s prisoners in accordance with the provisions of the 2008 Agreement on Consular Access.
Media reports confirm that Pakistan handed over a list of 308 Indian prisoners imprisoned in the country, including 266 fishermen, to the high commission of New Delhi in Islamabad.
Similarly, the Indian government handed over a list of Pakistani prisoners in its custody and said there are a total of 417 Pakistanis in Indian jails including 74 fishermen.
