India recently started visa-on-arrival facility for Pakistani senior citizens, giving a healthy turn to the bilateral relations between the two countries. Earlier the facility got delayed by nearly three months, due to heightened tension following the killing of two Indian soldiers on the disputed border.
“We have launched visa on arrival facility to Pakistani senior citizens at the Attari Integrated Check Post from April 1,” an Indian home ministry official told the Press Trust of India (PTI).The Attari Integrated Check Post is located in Amritsar district of Punjab state on the International border.
The facility as a part of the liberalized pact between the two countries was to initially start on January 15, as India and Pakistan signed the new visa agreement in September last year.
The facility, available for Pakistani citizens above 65 years of age, will make it easier for the senior citizens to visit their relatives in India, from whom they got separated during the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947.
To get visa to visit the neighboring country usually involves lots of hassles due to the tension prone relationship of the two countries.
India has yet not taken any decision on the stalled group tourist visa facility to Pakistani nationals. The two countries had agreed to offer the group tourist visa facility from March 15.
The killing of the two soldiers had made normalization process between the two countries more challenging. Indian government had asked Pakistan to make efforts to create a healthy environment to improve the bilateral relations.
