NEW DELHI – India has officially confirmed that Pakistani High Commissionhas “misplaced” passports of 23 Indian pilgrims. India’s external affairsminister Sushma Swaraj in a written statement in the parliament whileconfirming the development said,”‘ The Ministry of External Affairs hasreceived information that a total of twenty three (23) passports have beenmisplaced by the HighCommission of Pakistan in New Delhi.”
To prevent misuse of these misplaced passports, all the passports have beendeclared as ‘lost’ in the passport database.
Ministry of External affairs (MEA) has instructed all the Passport issuingauthorities to ensure that if these applicants apply for reissue ofpassports “‘caution may be exercised” while processing their passportapplications.
The incident happened in November of 2018 and was 1st reported in December.Pakistan high commission had issued 3800 visas to Sikh pilgrims in India toparticipate in 549th birth anniversary celebration of Baba Guru Nanak Devji in Pakistan from 21 to 30 November 2018.
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The development comes even as India and Pakistan announced building ofKartarpur corridor in 2018. Pakistani Draft proposal as seen by WION saysIslamabad will be issuing a permit, 500 per day to pilgrims and India hasto hand over the list 3 days ahead of the visit.
