Apart from infiltrators, Pakistanis enter India through the regular process and stay on illegally
NEW DELHI: A special drive has been ordered to track down Pakistanis and Bangladeshis staying illegally in the country. The need for such an exercise, long overdue, was felt after recent incidents of terror in the country, the latest being the gun battle leading to the arrest of two Pakistani nationals in Mysore on Friday after an alert from the central security agencies.
Apart from infiltrators, there are a number of Pakistanis who enter India through the regular, legal process. Many of them continue to stay on after their visas expire and go missing. According to the Union Home Ministry, 4,612 Pakistani nationals were illegally residing in India as on January, 2005. Moreover, even by Home Ministry records, this figure doubled in just four years, from 2,300 at the end of December 2001.
Pakistan is also reported to have used events such as cricket matches to send in its operatives. Over a hundred Pakistanis were reported to have 'gone missing' after the cricket match at Mohali last year. Visas had been issued to 3,223 Pakistanis. The power to detect and deport foreign nationals including Pakistani nationals, staying in India illegally, lie with the state governments and union territory administrations. The Centre issues instructions to them from time to time to launch special drives to detect Pakistani nationals staying illegally in the country for immediate deportation.
Pakistan has been using other methods and routes as well. After infiltration from western sector became difficult following border fencing, Pakistan has been attempting to infiltrate agents of terror through the porous Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh borders. There were also reports to indicate that it is attempting to infiltrate Pakistani agents with false Bangladeshi passports.
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