India to help 180 stranded Pakistanis return home via Attari-Wagah border

As many as 41 Pakistani nationals will return home Thursday via the Attari-Wagah border. The MEA has arranged cars to bring the Pakistanis to the border.

Covid-19 screening at the India-Pakistan border in Attari, Punjab (representational image) | ANI

New Delhi: India will facilitate the return of 180 Pakistani nationals by collaborating with the High Commission of Pakistan in the national capital, ThePrint has learnt.

Their departure from India, along with foreign nationals of other countries, is being facilitated by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

“We understand from the High Commission of Pakistan that 180 of their nationals presently in India want to go back. We are coordinating with concerned authorities to facilitate their departure,” said an MEA official. 

Meanwhile, 41 Pakistani nationals will be returning home Thursday via the Attari-Wagah border. The MEA has arranged 12 cars to bring the Pakistanis from different parts of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab to the border, according to government sources.

The MEA has also written letters to the director generals of police in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, commissioners of police in Delhi and Amritsar, as well as the director general of the Border Security Force, asking them to ensure smooth movement of these 12 vehicles.

According to the letter, the ministry has also directed that all the returning Pakistani nationals are “screened as per the international norms and existing provisions of the Government of India and only asymptomatic individuals may be allowed to return”.

Last month, five Pakistani nationals, who were stuck in India following the closure of border crossings due to coronavirus cases, returned home via the Attari-Wagah border.

Prior to this, four stranded Pakistani nationals — a 12-year-old boy named Sabeeh Sheeraz, his parents and grandfather — were repatriated via the Attari-Wagah border on 20 March.

Indians stranded in Pakistan, Bangladesh

Indian nationals continue to remain stranded in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Indian nationals, mostly students, have requested the Narendra Modi government to bring them back as they are unable to return due to the sealing of borders. Transit across borders has been stopped in an effort to restrict the spread of the coronavirus.

Nearly 100 students, mostly from Jammu and Kashmir, are stranded in Bangladesh, while several others from the union territory are in Pakistan.