India protests Pakistan denial of consular access to Sikh devotees
new delhi — India on Friday strongly protested Pakistan’s denial of consular access to Sikh devotees visiting two gurdwaras there on the occasion of Gurpurab — the 550th birth anniversary of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev.
“India has today (Friday) lodged a strong protest with the government of Pakistan that despite having been granted prior travel permission by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, the consular officials of the High Commission of India in Islamabad were harassed and denied access on Thursday and Friday at Gurdwara Nankana Sahib and Gurudwara Sacha Sauda to the Indian devotees visiting Pakistan under the Bilateral Protocol,” the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
“As a result of such harassment, they were compelled to return to Islamabad without performing their diplomatic and consular duties vis-a-vis Indian devotees.
“We have shared our grave concern that this is the third consecutive visit of the Indian Sikh devotees when Pakistan has prevented the Indian High Commission officials from meeting the visiting Indian nationals on the pretext of security in order to deflect attention from Pakistan’s violation of the international legal instruments and conventions like the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963.”
In April this year and then again in June, Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria and other consular officials were denied access to Sikh devotees who were visiting Gurdwara Panja Sahib.
The statement said that this breached the letter and spirit of the 1974 Bilateral Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines signed by the two countries and the 1992 Code of Conduct for the treatment of diplomatic and consular personnel in India and Pakistan.
It said that Pakistan’s action was in contrast to India’s treatment to their High Commissioner and the consular officials in New Delhi who have been provided full access to meet Pakistani devotees who are currently in India on a religious visit to Kalyar Sharif. —