82 Pakistanis trapped in horrific lockdown in India

NEW DELHI/NAGPUR: Eighty-two Pakistanis are stranded in Madhya Pradesh and Nagpur in Maharashtra amid the coronavirus lockdown.

These Pakistanis, who came for business and treatment are trapped in Indore, while some arrived in India for pilgrimage, reported foreign media.

Their visa validity is also over. They will be sent to Pakistan on May 3 after seeking help from the Pakistan High Commission.

In the first list, the police have allowed 23 people. They will be released from private vehicles at the Wagah border.

After correspondence with Pakistan High Commission, the police has prepared the roadmap. According to SP (Headquarters) Suraj Verma, most of the Sindhis came from Pakistan, who are staying in Annapurna and Juni Indore area of the city.

Some of them had come to visit relatives, some had come in connection with eye treatment and some business, but got caught in the lockdown caused by Coronavirus.

According to the SP, the names of 33 people have been written in the letter received from the Ministry of External Affairs. Pakistani citizens stranded in these cities are Agra, Bijnor, Rae Bareli, Rampur, Kausambi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Anand, Bhopal, Burhanpur, Indore, Nagpur, Pune, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Mumbai, Delhi, Raipur, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Jodhpur, Kota and Kolkata.

Meanwhile forty-nine Pakistani nationals who were stranded in Nagpur in Maharashtra amid coronavirus outbreak for over a month are set to return to their country after getting necessary permissions from the Pakistan High Commission and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. Over 190 members of the Hindu Sindhi community from Ghotki district in Sindh province of Pakistan arrived in India for pilgrimage on February 27, 2020, local officials said. The 49 of them landed in Nagpur to visit Baba Hardas Ram Ghodi Dham in Jaripatka area.

Rajesh Jhambia, a local social worker who made arrangements for their stay here, said they were supposed to leave Nagpur on March 20 and cross the Attari border on March 22, but got stranded as lockdown to contain coronavirus was announced.

Forty-one of them are staying at Baba Hardas Ram Ghodi Dham, Jaripatka, and eight are staying at their relatives' houses. "We got the nod of the Pakistan High Commission on Friday evening and the pilgrims will leave for Amritsar late Saturday night by buses from where they will cross the border at Attari," he said.