NEW DELHI, Jan 4: Leading human rights activists and intellectuals from Pakistan, including Asma Jehangir, have become the first victims of a recently introduced visa restriction by India for Pakistani visitors aimed ostensibly at checking cross-border terrorism, newspapers and diplomats said on Friday.

Jehangir and her colleagues I.A.Rehman and Mubashir Hussain, regular visitors to India as part of a widely acclaimed Track-II diplomacy, were denied visas to attend the Asian Social Forum conference, SAF sources said.

“The Pakistan delegation to the Asian Social Forum here, headed by Asma Jehangir, leading women’s and human rights activist, has been denied visa by India,” The Hindu newspaper reported from Hyderbabad. It quoted Nirmala Deshpande, Gandhian activist, as saying this at the opening plenary session of the ASF.

The announcement was greeted with a chorus of “shame, shame”, by a large number of delegates, The Hindu said.

“A disappointed Ms Deshpande said the Pakistani delegates would not be able to come as they had been denied visas by India. She expressed the hope that the people’s voice would reach the powers that be in Delhi and it would be forced not to repeat it,” the newspaper said.

A Pakistani diplomat condemned India’s decision to stop visas for the internationally renowned rights workers.

“We have always opposed restrictions on visits by intellectuals,” the diplomat said. He, however, declined to say if Pakistan would respond with a stricter visa regime of its own for Indian visitors in response to a recent Indian decision to curb the movement and visas for Pakistani visitors.—JN