ISLAMABAD – Minister of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony SahibzadaNoor-ul-Haq Qadri Monday said India has refused to issue visas to theintending Pakistani aspirants of attending the forthcoming Urs of KhawajaMoinuddin Chishti being held in Ajmir Sharif, India this month.
In a statement, the minister said India has refused visas to Pakistanpilgrims desiring to attend the Urs of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti for secondconsecutive year, exposing the real face of India which has indeed becomehostage in the hands of religious extremists.He said the Indian embassy in Islamabad has informed the ministry viatelephone about refusal of visas. The ministry has conveyed the pilgrimsthrough short Messaging Services (SMS) on mobile telephone.
Indian embassy has not yet returned the passports of intending pilgrims.He said 500 Pakistan religious pilgrims were scheduled to leave for AjmirSharif (India) on March 7, to attend the Urs of Khawaja Moinuddin ChishtiAjmiri scheduled to be held this month.
On contrary, he said, Pakistan has issued 5,600 visas to Sikh and 312 HinduYatrees this year. As many as 98 Sikh Yatrees have already reached Pakistanto visit their sacred religious places.
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Earlier, he said, India had issued only 190 visas from out of 400 soughtfor participating in the Urs of Alauddin Sabir and Nizamuddin Auliya.
