Home Ministry gets Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti’s papers

NEW DELHI: Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti's application seeking travel documents and Indian id was received by the union home ministry. “It is under examination,” a senior official at the ministry said. The home ministry will conduct security verification with the help of intelligence agencies before deciding on Bugti’s application to travel to India. “It is a political decision at the highest level, but we need to follow the process for the requisite paperwork,” the official added.

Bugti applied at the Indian consulate in Geneva three days ago seeking political asylum and the application was subsequently forwarded to the external affairs ministry, which in turn sent it to the home ministry. India does not have a comprehensive asylum policy. As per the United Nations, there are at least 6,480 asylum seekers in India but the government does not recognise them. The situation is so complex that the officials at the home ministry are digging through 1959 records to check the process.

In 1959, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and his followers were granted asylum by the Jawaharlal Nehru government and later they were allowed to form a government in exile.

Even the term 'refugee' is not mentioned in any domestic law. India has not signed the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention on the Status of Refugees, or its 1967 Protocol that stipulates the rights and services host states must provide refugees.