M A I N   N E W S

India eases visa regime
To allow Pak passport holders to come by road
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 9
In another set of confidence building measures aimed at facilitating the visa regime, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today decided that henceforth Pakistani passport holders would be allowed to come to India by road and obtain visas at the Attari check-point in Punjab.

An additional checkpost would be opened at Munabao in Rajasthan for the purpose, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Nirupama Rao announced here.

Similar checkpost would also be opened at designated points along the international border and the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, Mrs Rao said.

“It is our conviction that the foundations of peace between India and Pakistan have to be laid in the minds and hearts of men and women, and above all, the youth of both countries. Thus travel between India and Pakistan should be made as simple and easy as possible”, the spokesperson said giving out the reasons for the steps.

Administrative arrangements, including those of transport, will be urgently put in place so as to implement the Prime Minister’s decision within three months, she pointed out.

Asked if a check-post would also be set up to facilitate road travel between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, the spokesperson said that it could well be one of the routes but until it is decided, it is not possible to either to confirm or to deny it.

Asked about the proposed meeting of the Indian Director General Military Operations with his counterpart in Pakistan, Joint Secretary (Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan) in the Ministry of External Affairs Vivek Katju said that DGMO Lt-Gen G.S. Sihota had spoken on telephone today at 5.25 p.m. with his counterpart Maj-Gen Ashraf Pervez Kayani and the latter had promised to revert to us on the date of the meeting.

Meanwhile, Pakistan High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi today met Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer who briefed him about the Indian proposal on a meeting between the DGMOs and on setting up of a high-level group on “security concepts and nuclear confidence building measures”. Asked if Pakistan would reciprocate, the spokesperson said that “we hope so”.