Kashmiri students stranded due to visa issue

Iftikhar Gilani

* Indian govt, opposition protest China's special visa for Kashmiris

NEW DELHI: Scores of Kashmiri students remain stranded in New Delhi as India and China fight over the nature of visas issued by the Chinese embassy. The issue came up recently when Indian immigration authorities started returning and, in some cases, offloading Kashmiri students traveling to Beijing for higher studies, saying the visas issued to them had not been stamped on their passports. The Chinese embassy had issued visas on separate documents stapled to the students' travel documents.

The standoff has affected the career of many students, who are either already studying medicine or are on full scholarship programmes to complete their doctorates in Chinese universities. Recently, two Kashmiri traders, Shuja Altaf and Beg Bilal, were also barred from boarding a flight from Delhi airport to Beijing and Hong Kong. Some students have complained that even after being admitted to various Chinese universities, they have now been asked to apply again next year as the current academic session had already begun in most institutions. Protest: Also, the Indian government and opposition parties on Thursday protested the Chinese government's practice of issuing special class visas to Kashmiri-born Indian passport holders.

"It is our view and position that there should be no discrimination against visa applicants of Indian nationality on grounds of domicile or ethnicity," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said. "We have conveyed our well-justified concern to the Chinese government in this regard," he said. The Chinese embassy spokesman said the special visas issued to the students were valid. Chinese diplomats said the practice of issuing visas on a separate piece of paper was not new. The diplomat attributed the crises to "newfound Indian sensitivities" towards China. Indian officials said External Affairs Minister SM Krishna would raise the issue with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi during the latter's visit to India later this month. They said the move was an attempt to question the status of Jammu and Kashmir. "It's meant to put India on the defensive on the boundary issue," said a source.

Indian Home Ministry officials said the separate sheet of visa paper was fraught with security risks. They say the unattached visas did not leave any trail and did not fully reflect the travel record of the passport holder.