India okays long-term visas for 308 Pakistani nationals seeking refuge

The Centre has approved long-term visas (LTV) for 308 Pakistan nationals seeking refuge in India due to religious persecution.

About 7,000 applications of Pakistani nationals are pending before the Union home ministry for grant of Indian citizenship, said people aware of the matter. While citizenship is granted after a specified number of years of residency, under the Citizenship Act, 1955, LTVs are issued for immediate stay to those with valid passports for a duration of five years.

According to the home ministry, 308 LTV applications from Pakistani nationals have been granted while as many applications are pending before the authorities. In 2019, Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which paved the way for granting citizenship to members of six undocumented minority communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who entered India before December 31, 2014. However, the rules for implementing the law have yet to be notified.


On Thursday, minority affairs ministry Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said during the motion of thanks to the President's address before the Rajya Sabha that the CAA helped in bringing the minorities from Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country in August 2021. His comment came days after a Hindu businessman, Satan Lal, was reportedly shot dead over a land dispute in Pakistan's Sindh province. The murder triggered protests in several towns of Ghotki, leading to blockade of the national highway, as per the reports.

Home ministry officials said the majority of citizenship requests from foreign nationals are pending and that out of 8,300 applications received by the ministry, about 3,150 members of the minority communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been issued Indian citizenship in the past four years.

After the CAA was passed by Parliament, widespread protests were witnessed in different parts of the country, leading to deaths of nearly 100 people in police firing and related violence.