Pahalgam terror attack: 786 Pakistanis returned via Attari border after India revoked all visas

Attari-Wagah border point. (File photo/PTI)

As India launched a counter-offensive against Pakistan, after the Pahalgam terror attack which killed 26 civilians on April 22, suspending the Indus Water Treaty and revoking visas, 786 Pakistani nationals left the country via the Attari-Wagah integrated check post between April 24 and 29.

Meanwhile, 1,376 Indian visitors to Pakistan returned the same way in this period, according to a report by the Times of India.

New Delhi set the deadline for April 29 for Pakistani visitors on 14 categories of revoked visas to leave India. While Saarc visas for Pakistani nationals were revoked on April 23 in view of investigations into the Pahalgam carnage pointing to a Pakistan link in the conspiracy, all other valid visas issued to Pakistani nationals, except diplomatic and official visa and long-term visa, were revoked on April 24.

The Indian government, while revoking the visas as part of its retaliation over the ghastly terror attack, announced that Saarc visa holders would need to leave India by April 26, Pakistani visitors on a dozen other visas by April 27 and those on medical visas by April 29.

28 Pakistani nationals had returned to their home country via Attari on April 24, followed by 191 on April 25, 81 on April 26, 237 on April 27, 145 on April 28 and 104 on Tuesday, sources in agencies manning the Attari integrated check post told TOI.

Meanwhile, as for Indian visitors to Pakistan on valid visas, 105 returned via Wagah-Attari land route on April 24, 287 on April 25, 342 on April 26, 115 on April 27, 275 on April 28 and another 252 on Tuesday.