KARACHI: India on Sunday decided to grant visa to a Pakistani cancer patient so that she could travel across the border for treatment. Last month, India had denied Faiza Tanveer the visa, according to a Dawn.com report.

“Thanks for your greetings on India’s Independence Day. We are giving you the visa for your treatment in India,” tweeted Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) in response to Ms Tanveer’s impassioned plea that she should be issued visa on the occasion of India’s 70th independence anniversary.

“mam qp meray lie maa he hain plz mam mujhu medical visa day dain es 70win azadi k sall ki khushi mein meri maddad kr dain dhnywd [Ma’am, you are like a mother to me, please issue me a medical visa... and help me on this happy occasion of 70th year of independence. Thank you],” Ms Tanveer (@FaizaTanveer8) had tweeted earlier on Sunday.

The 25-year-old, who is from Lahore according to her Twitter bio, thanked the Indian minister in a tweet on Monday for her help.

Ms Tanveer was due to receive treatment at the Inderprastha Dental College and Hospital (IDCH) in Ghaziabad for a recurrent ameloblastoma, a cancerous oral tumour which is aggressive in nature.

The Indian embassy had rejected Ms Tanveer’s visa application in July, citing deteriorating ties between the two countries. She had then appealed to politicians in both countries to help facilitate her application.

A week after her visa was rejected, Ms Swaraj said that visas would be issued to Pakistani patients on the recommendation of then adviser to the prime minister on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz.

However, Mr Aziz had refused to write a recommendation letter for Ms Tanveer, who will now travel to India for medical treatment in September.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2017