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Pak.-India forum disapproves of visa restrictions

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI Jan. 2. The Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy, India chapter, has expressed strong disapproval of the Central Government's decision to restrict the movement of Pakistani nationals visiting the country to three cities from 12 at present.

Responding to the Minister of State for Home, Vidyasagar Rao's statement on behalf of the Government, the Forum Chairperson, Admiral Ramdas, said today that the Forum "expresses its concern over any such move to further restrict the mobility of Pakistani citizens in India''.

He said "this, as we understand, would only stifle the civil society's attempts at reuniting the people of India and Pakistan through people-to-people dialogue and peace initiatives''.

The statement said, "We also take strong exception to the Minister's comment, `you need only one Osama bin Laden to cause a disaster'. This kind of irresponsible statement from people holding high positions would only help in branding innocent citizens of a country as `terrorists', thus thinning the possibility of peace in the sub-continent."

"We also reiterate that this move by the NDA Government would sabotage the demilitarisation step it had initiated in November last. These steps amount to fuelling the confrontation between the two countries at the cost of ordinary people, many of whom have legitimate humanitarian reasons to travel to the neighbouring country,'' the Forum said and called upon both the Governments to facilitate travel between their countries by road, rail and airways.

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