Following a deadly attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam this week, which killed around 26 people, India has responded by immediately suspending visa services for Pakistani nationals. Furthermore, all Pakistani citizens have been instructed to leave India by April 27, with an extended deadline of April 29 for those holding medical visas. Amid this, a Pakistani father is urgently appealing to Indian authorities to allow his family to remain in the country until his two children complete their critical medical treatment.
“They have a heart condition, and their treatment was possible in New Delhi because of the advanced medical treatment here. But after the Pahalgam incident, we have been told to return to Pakistan immediately,” the man from Hyderabad in Sindh province said.
The family is caught in the New Delhi and Islamabad visa move. Both countries cancelled SAARC visa privileges following the Pahalgam terror attack.
The Pakistani father, who was not named by Geo News, told the outlet on the phone that his two children, aged nine and seven, have suffered from a congenital heart condition. They are currently receiving treatment in India due to the country’s advanced medical facilities, and their life-saving surgery is set to take place next week.
He explained that while the hospital and doctors are providing their full cooperation, they are facing pressure from the police and the foreign office to leave Delhi without delay. “I appeal to the governments to allow the medical treatment of my children to be completed as we have spent around Rs 10 million on our travel, stay and their treatment,” he said.
Amid the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, over 100 Indian citizens in Pakistan have already left for their homeland, with more expected to cross the border into India.
“Some 105 Indian nationals left Pakistan for their homeland and 28 Pakistanis in India returned here on Thursday,” Express Tribune quoted a government official as saying.
A Pakistani Hindu family of seven, travelling from Balochistan to attend a wedding ceremony in India, arrived at the Wagah border. Upon reaching Wagah, they were told that they couldn’t cross into India because the Indian government had cancelled their visas. “We were unaware of the development because of a journey to Lahore from Balochistan,” one of the family members, Akshay Kumar, said.
Pakistani Hindu families who previously migrated to India and were granted No Objection Return to India (NORI) visas are also facing an uncertain future under the current tension between the two countries.
On April 22, terrorists opened fire in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, killing 26 people, mostly tourists, in the deadliest attack in the Valley since the Pulwama strike in 2019. The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow outfit of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the attack.
In response, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in New Delhi decided on Wednesday to immediately close the Integrated Check Post at Attari, suspend the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 which was brokered by the World Bank, cancel the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES), and declare all members of the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi persona non grata.
Mirroring India’s steps, Islamabad on Thursday closed the Wagah border post, cancelled visas given to Indians under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) and asked military advisors at the Indian High Commission to leave.
(With inputs from PTI)