February 22, 2007	Thursday	Safar 4, 1428

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LAHORE, Feb 21: Indian authorities will issue visas next three days to the relatives of Samjhota train victims at a makeshift office in Lahore.

The makeshift office set up by the Indian High Commission at a Davis Road hotel was to grant visas till Wednesday night, but Pakistani Foreign Office asked it to continue functioning till Saturday night (Feb 24).

Up to 69 people have been granted 10-day emergency visas for Panipat, Ambala and Delhi, to search their missing kin, identify the dead and look after the injured.

“The number of relatives of the Samjhota tragedy is on the rise after the arrival of Thar Express. The people who neither found their relatives in Sindh or Thar expresses nor could contact them now have started coming from Karachi and other parts of Sindh by trains,” Assistant Consulate MK Mustafi of Indian High Commission said.

Some 49 people were granted visa till 1:30am on Wednesday and they have crossed into India where buses have been arranged by the United Nations to carry them to any of the three cities, he said.

Mustafi said visas were being granted within an hour after minor verification. “We refused visas to a dozen people who had no valid passports. Among them were tearful teenagers or 70-year-old people,” he said, adding “Ali Muhammad, 70, was denied a visa but when he came along with an adult relative, both were granted visas.” — Staff Reporter