AS MANY as 786 Pakistani nationals,including 55 diplomats, their dependents and support staff, besides eight Indians with Pakistani visa, have left India through the Attari-Wagah border crossing in the last six days following a Government order in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, officials said on Wednesday. A total of 1, 465 Indians,including 25 diplomats and officials, besides 151 Pakistani citizens withlong-term Indian visashave crossed over to India from Pakistan through the international border crossing located in Punjab since April 24.

 

The‘Leave India’ notice to the Pakistaninationalswasissuedby the Government after 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed byPakistan-linked terroristsinPahalgam in Jammu and KashmironApril 22.Thedeadline for exiting India for those holding SAARC visas was April 26. For those carryingmedical visas, the deadline was April 29. The deadline for 12 other categories of visas was April 27. These were visas on arrival and visas for business, film, journalist, transit, conference, mountaineering,student,visitor,group tourist, pilgrim and group pilgrims. Three Defence/Military, Naval and Air Advisors in the Pakistani High Commission in NewDelhiweredeclaredPersona Non Grata on April 23 and they were given one week toleave India. Fivesupport staff of these defence attaches were also asked to leave India.India hasalsowithdrawn its defence attache from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

 

However, those having longterm, diplomatic or official visas were exempted from the‘LeaveIndia’order.Theofficials toldPTI that altogether 94 Pakistani nationals, including 10 diplomats, left India through the Attari-Wagah border crossing point onApril 29; 145Pakistanis, including 36 diplomats, their dependents and support staff, left on April 28; a total of 237 Pakistanis,includingninediplomats and officials, left India on April 27; 81 left on April 26; 191 on April 25 and 28 on April 24. Sixty Pakistani women married to former Kashmiri terrorists were deported to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah border, said officials onWednesday. These women were picked up from Srinagar, Baramulla, Kupwara,Budgam, andShopian districts and were escorted in buses to Punjab for handover to Pakistaniauthorities.Mostof the women had entered Kashmir under the 2010 rehabilitation policy for former terrorists. 

 

 

 

PAKISTANI troops engaged in unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) in multiple sectors across four border districts of Jammu and Kashmir, prompting Indian forces to‘respond effectively’, officials said on Wednesday.The firing,which beganwith small arms,was reported from the Pargwal sector along the IB in Jammu district, and the Sunderbani and Naushera sectors in Rajouri district. Thismarked the sixthconsecutivenight of ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the LoC, amidst heightened tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad following a recent terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22.

 

 

A YOUNG man from Jalna city in Maharashtra, who recently returned from Kashmir, has claimed that one of the suspected attackers in the Pahalgam terror case spoke to him a day before the carnage. “Hinduhokya.Youdon’tlook likeyou arefromKashmir,”said AdarshRaut,recallinghisinteractionwithaman ata food stall in the Baisaran Valley on April 21. Days after the massacre of tourists, security agencies released sketches of three suspected attackers, and one of themmatched the person who had spoken to him, Raut told the media on Tuesday. According to Raut, he had gone horse riding in Pahalgam on April 21 and had stopped at a “Maggi stall” for food when a man approached him and asked him if he was a Hindu. He also told Raut that he did not look like a Kashmiri. “The suspect then turned tohiscompanion and said, ‘There’s less crowd today,” said Raut. The Jalna resident said he found the conversation a bit disturbing but did not grasp the full implication of it until the following day, when terrorists killed over two dozen tourists in cold blood in the same area.