Author: Biresh Banerjee/New Delhi
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 9, 2001
Two hundred Hindus and Sikhs of
Afghan origin are in Pakistan waiting to cross over into India at this
moment according to president of the Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society Sardar
Manohar Singh.
The society is an association of
Afghans of Indian origin. According to Mr Singh, around two hundred Afghanis
of Indian origin have crossed into Peshawar in Pakistan in the past week
and want to come to India.
"The Afghan Hindu-Sikh Welfare Society
which deals with the visa problems of the refugees, had sought assistance
from the Home Ministry last week for refugees visas to India," he said.
"The Home Ministry on Friday responded
positively by saying that they were working on easing out the problem,"
said Mr Singh.
Many refugees in the Capital are
now hopeful of seeing their kith and kin in Pakistan reaching India soon.
The people already in Peshawar,
came in through an unguarded mountainous route on the border of Afghanistan
and Pakistan according to Mr Singh.
According to him, the process of
issuing visas to the Afghan refugees is a tedious one. "First, the application
for the visa is made to the Indian embassy in Islamabad, which are then
sent to the Home Ministry here for verification. The whole process takes
around six months," he said.
Many Afghans of Indian origin in
Pakistan would have gone to the Indian Embassy in Islamabad on Monday he
said.
Associate External Relations officer
with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Nayana Bose
said, "Many people who get to Pakistan and have proper documents would
like to come to India. So one cannot rule out refugees coming into India."
Sardar Manohar Singh said that with
the attacks on Afghanistan, the urgency to move out of Pakistan has increased
among the Afghans of Indian origin.
"They are not very safe in Pakistan
the way the present scenario is shaping up," he said.
But for many others in Afghanistan,
things are worse now, with the Taliban not letting anyone move out of Kabul,
Jalalabad and Kandahar.
"For many of the 500 odd refugees
in the Capital, its a long and excruciating wait for their relatives who
are left in Afghanistan, as there has been no contact with them for a long
time," said Sardar Manohar Singh.
The only mode of contact is a phone
call from Peshawar. Some of the still rich Indians in Afghanistan use their
mobile phones to call up relatives.
