It was a slap in the face: Ansar Burney

Home ministry expresses regret over denial of entry to Pakistani activist

MUMBAI: The drama over the ‘deportation’ of former Pakistani minister and human rights activist Ansar Burney got curiouser on Saturday with the home ministry expressing regret over the incident but clarifying that he had not been deported. The home ministry also issued a two-page clarification (earlier sought by the Ministry of External Affairs) that Burney was denied entry into India on Friday “on account of inadequate documentation”. The “inconvenience to him was unfortunate and regrettable”, and he was welcome to visit India again, the clarification said.

Exactly an hour after he landed in New Delhi, the former Pakistan human rights minister was put back on the same Emirates Airlines flight he had arrived in at about 8.30pm on Friday. Burney, who is fighting for the release of Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails, had visited India recently and met senior Indian home minister Shivraj Patil and senior Indian officials to discuss the issue of clemency for prisoner Sarabjit Singh.

Speaking to DNA from London on Saturday, Burney was aghast at the home ministry’s statement. “What does ‘inadequate documentation’ mean? I want to remind the minister this is the same passport and SAARC visa on which I visited India six weeks ago and met him,” Burney said. “This allegation is absolutely wrong. I was made to sign deportation papers before being put on a flight back to Dubai. The home ministry’s ‘regret’ is akin to slapping me and then asking if it hurts.”

He made it clear on Saturday that he will not return till he receives a clarification from the home ministry about why he was deported. “I have spent more than £2,500 and over 40 hours to come to India,” the former Pakistan minister said. “If the ministry thinks my documentation was inadequate, why do they regret sending me away? They should acknowledge their mistake rather than try to cover up.”

Ministry sources said, however, that Burney was deported because his name was on a look-out list - usually issued against suspected terrorists and wanted criminals - that had not been updated. But this too sounds untenable. “How come this look-out notice didn’t matter when I was in India six weeks ago?” Burney says. “And what is the look-out for? I’m here on a peace mission” His five-day itinerary in India - apparently sent to the ministry a week ago by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad - included attending a peace conference against terrorism and a peace rally in Delhi and a two-day visit to Mumbai. Burney was also scheduled to visit Jaipur on June 3 “to offer fatiha (prayers) for the people who had died in the recent blasts”. He adds: “If the Indian government had any objections to any part of my visit, I would have done as directed.” He adds: “I could’ve made trouble about this if I wanted to, but I didn’t. As an advisory member of the UN’s Peace Council, this matter could have gone as far as the United Nations.”

That fact that it took only an hour to put him back on the Dubai flight, makes Burney think it was planned. “Immigration officers were checking my passport and my SAARC visa (on which I visited India earlier), when one of them took the passport away and asked me to wait in the office,” says Burney. “I later learnt that they had kept the Dubai flight waiting. It was all set for take-off when they got the doors opened and put me back on it.” Burney says despite repeatedly asking what was wrong, he was told it was “an order from the top”. Burney had arrived on the Emirates Airlines flight EK 514 from Dubai, and sent back on it.

He guesses it could - among other things - be about prisoners. Burney, who recently secured the release of Kashmir Singh, who was held in a Pakistan jail for 35 years, and is now working on the Sarabjit case, says: “Four Pakistani prisoners kept in Indian jails have died in the last three months. Only two of their bodies have been sent back. Pakistan has recently released 99 Indian prisoners, while India has freed only 14 Pakistanis. Maybe the Indian government deported me fearing that the Indian media would ask me questions that might make the ministry uncomfortable.”

According to Burney, shortly after he flew back to Dubai he received a call from Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur. “She was upset about my deportation, thinking this would make me drop Sarabjit’s case. But I told her nothing would make me back down, not even being turned away from India. I have tremendous support from people on both sides of the border.”