By Chanchal Manohar Singh

Chandigarh: it has been found that the number of Pakistani visiting India in the past three years has been declining sharply, according to the annual report of the Union Home Ministry (HM), the report mentioned. It may be added here for the understanding of the readers that the Indian Home Ministry is equivalent to Pakistan’s Interior Ministry.

However, the 1,982 foreigners deported from India during the past 15 months the report did not mention the deportation of any person of Pakistani origin.

From 1,04,720 in 2016, the numbers of Pakistanis visiting India came down to 57,283 and in the whole year of 2018 and the first three months of 2019. In 2017, the number of the Pakistani visited India is 67,350, the report mentioned.

Thanks to strained relations between the two neighbors, there are now few visitors from Pakistan. The Samjhauta Express train and other mode of direct transport between the two countries have been suspended following Balakot action.

According to an HM report in The Hindu a senior government official said that in August 2016, the ministry put in place an electronic visa clearance process for Pakistani citizens. For countries under the restricted category, such as Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan, any visa application has to be cleared by the Ministry after receiving inputs from the security agencies within 60 days.

The highest number of foreign visitors starting from January 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, was from Bangladesh. Of the 1.37 crore foreigners who came to India during the period, around 28.76 lakh were from Bangladesh, followed by 18-63 lakh from US and 13.69 lakh from the UK, the report stated.

In 15 months, period, a total of 16,121 long term visas were granted from Pakistani national. A long-term visa (LTVs) is a precursor to an Indian citizen.  The via facility was introduced in 2011 for persecuted Hindus from Pakistan. The LTVs granted Pakistani Hindus from 2011 to 2014 stood at 14,726. The BJP at the center will reintroduce the Citizen Amendment Bill, 2019 incoming winter session of Parliament. It proposes to grant citizenship to six categories of minorities-Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Christians, and Buddhists from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who came to India before 2014.

In 2016 and 2017, a total of 2,298 and 4,712 LTVs respectively, were approved for Pakistani nationals.

Deportations

Out of the 1,982 foreigners deported by the authorities of the foreigner’s Regional registration Office (FRRO) during the past 15 months, the highest number belonged to Nigeria (847), followed by Bangladesh (491), and Somalia (124), the sated.

In 2017, of the 1,303 deported the highest was from Nigeria (601), followed by Bangladesh (338) and Afghanistan (61), according to the HM report.