Afghan Sikhs, Hindus ask Govt to expedite visa process
PTI
(Amritsar, October 26, 2001)
Source: Hindustan Times
Four Sikh and two Hindu families today crossed over into India from Afghanistan and heaved a sigh of relief even as they regretted that the Indian authorities were not expediting the visa process.
The people from terror-hit Kabul and Kandhar said they had to wait in Pakistan for a “few days” before arriving here.
About 112 families had applied for visas at the Indian embassy in Pakistan but “only the names of 47 families had been approved so far by Delhi,” said Tarlok Singh, a cloth merchant from Kabul.
He told reporters on arrival at Attari railway station near here by the Samjhauta Express that out of the 47 families, 12 had arrived in Pakistan to return to India while 35 families had been put up at Ghazni in Afghanistan.
Singh claimed that 62 Indian families did not have passports and a list of such families had been forwarded to the Indian embassy to enable their return.
The cloth merchant claimed that the condition of 150 odd Sikhs and Hindu families in Afghanistan was “miserable” as they were living in “constant terror”.
Singh thanked Tarlochan Singh, vice chairman of the minorities commission, for taking “deep interest” in bringing them back to India and appealed to the government to expedite the visa process.
Mehr Singh, ‘granthi’ of gurdwara Karta Parwan in Kabul, said the holy books were safe there and a few Sikhs were staying back to bring Guru Granth Sahib safely.
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