Pakistan students slam ‘Host’ile Ahmedabad cops

The 31 students and five faculty members from Pakistan, who had come to the city to be part of the National Association of Students of Architecture (Nasa) convention ended up missing their bus to Jaipur after being caught up in alleged red-tape at the commissioner office in the city on Monday.

A member of the delegation said that they were called to the CP office at around 1pm. Explaining the entire episode Faizal Arshad, who is heading the delegation, said: "The problem concerned a stamp that stated Hyderabad instead of Ahmedabad. The mistake was made by the Indian high commission in Pakistan. We then had to get a fax from the high commission clarifying the mistake. But the initial fax, which was sent after we reached here, was not addressed to the commissioner and we had to send it again. They gave us a fax number that had not been functioning for three days and hence when we went to get our exit cleared they said they did not get the necessary fax," he said.

"Artists and cricketers have it so easy so why not academicians? When we also help build bridges between nations, this delay could have been completely avoided," lamented Arshad. Members of the delegation alleged that they were also videographed individually as if they were criminals. "It was very demeaning and insulting. Even the organisers had given the necessary guarantee. Moreover, some of the lower level staff were rude, although the commissioner himself was very polite," said another member of the delegation. Incidentally, the delegation ended up having a group picture clicked with the police commissioner too!

Eventually the issue was sorted out after seven hours, but by that time the delegation missed their bus. "Now the next tickets are available for Wednesday and as per the documents we are allowed to stay here only up to Tuesday midnight. We also have to now sort out budget and travel issues," said Arshad.

A cop at the commissioner office, however, denied that the delegation was videographed.