China issues stapled visa to shooter from Arunachal Pradesh

Even as prime minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese president Hu Jintao shook hands and smiled for the cameras after a bilateral meeting in Brazilian capital Brasilia, a young Indian shooter from Arunachal Pradesh saw his hopes of taking part in an international event crumble.

He was not allowed to board his flight from Mumbai.

The Chinese embassy had issued him a stapled visa, as is being done with all Indian nationals living in Kashmir. It now appears that ace shooter Pemba Tamang had travelled to China three times earlier on a similar visa. But since last November, the government changed the rules saying no Indian national could visit China on a stapled visa.

Senior sources in the government had made it clear before foreign minister SM Krishna’s visit to Beijing earlier this month that he would take up the issue of stapled visas.

The external affairs ministry refused to comment on the latest missive from

China, saying facts will have to be verified before issuing a statement. But government sources confirmed they were not aware that nationals from Arunachal were treated in the same category as Kashmiris.

For the last two years, China has been issuing such visas only to Kashmiris. For the people of Arunachal, the earlier practice was not to issue a visa on the grounds that the northeastern state was a “part of China and its people did not need travel papers as they were its citizens”.