KOHAT, Dec 16: Former Test cricketer Qasim Omar has taken strong exception to the refusal of Indian embassy to issue him and his mother visas and requested that if possible he be issued visa on his British passport.

Talking to Dawn, he said that on Tuesday he visited the Indian embassy for a visa where an officer asked for his expired passport. He told him that he had been issued fresh one after the expiry of the old one which he had left behind in London.

Even then the officials refused to issue him a visa and did not allow him to meet any responsible official. He said that it was his mother's desire to visit her relatives in Indian Gujrat which we had not met since long.

He lamented that if this was the treatment given to famous cricketers what would be the attitude of the Indian embassy officials with common people who wish to visit India.

He said that both the countries had been claiming that people to people contact was necessary for the normalisation of relations and much had been published in the papers regarding easing of visa restrictions but the reality was much different.

"People still have to wait for days in long queues to get a visa," he remarked. About his long beard he said, "cricketers are usually considered disco boys who love dancing and music by supporting beard I want to convey a message to that we too are as good Muslims as other people are."