ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday expressed deep disappointment over non-issuance of visas by India to over 500 Pakistani pilgrims who wanted to attend the Urs of Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer Sharif.

The annual festival will be held later this month.

“The visit was to take place under the 1974 Pakistan-India Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines and it is a regular annual feature, but Pakistani pilgrims have been deprived of the opportunity to participate in the urs, which is of special significance,” says a statement of the Foreign Office issued on Monday.

Earlier in January, Pakistani pilgrims could not participate in the urs of Hazrat Khawaja Nizamuddin Aulia in New Delhi for the same reason.

Last year, Pakistan offered to send a special train to India to bring Sikh pilgrims to participate in the death anniversaries of Guru Arjan Dev and Maharaja Ranjit Singh, but the Indian government kept delaying the matter and the Sikh pilgrims could not reach Pakistan, the FO said.

“Similarly in February, the Government of Pakistan had made all arrangements for the visit of 173 Katas Raj pilgrims, but they were forced to withdraw their applications from the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi due to non-issuance of necessary clearance by the Ministry of External Affairs of India,” the FO statement said.

It said that besides being violative of the bilateral protocol of 1974 and basic human right of religious freedom, such measures undermine efforts aimed at improving the environment, increasing people-to-people contacts and normalising relations between the two countries,” the FO statement further said. “It is again ironic that this has been done on the occasion of Urs of Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti (RA) who has for centuries been a symbol of love, peace and tolerance to bring different communities closer to each other,” the statement said.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2018