JK students' body urges Shah to facilitate travel of Kashmiri students to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: The Jammu and Kashmir Students Association (JKSA) on Tuesday appealed to Home Minister Amit Shah and Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to facilitate the travel of Kashmiri students to Pakistan.

In a letter to Shah, National General Secretary of JKSA Danish Lone said around 100 Kashmiri medical and engineering students pursuing studies in Pakistan were asked for clearance at immigration and are stranded in Kashmir. The JKSA said the students are due to write their annual examinations and will miss a precious academic year if they were not allowed to travel to Pakistan. The students were not allowed to travel to Pakistan through Wagah Border Crossing or via Dubai, United Arab Emirates despite possessing all travel documents, Lone said. "Students were supposed to travel back to Pakistan by March 17. However, they were stopped by Indian immigration authorities as they asked them to provide NOC from MHRD and MHA," he further said.

Lone said that on March 17, a list of 349 citizens from Jammu and Kashmir were approved by the Ministry of External Affairs but after reaching Attari Wagah Border, they were stopped and told their list is yet to reach them. "The Indian immigration authorities allowed about 124 other passengers in which 81 were from Pakistan and rest were hailing from other states of India," Lone said.

"Students from J&K were asked to wait and later the authorities announced that they have changed the policies for travelling from India to Pakistan on March 16, he added. The association appealed to the ministers to take immediate steps to resolve the issue on humanitarian grounds.

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