Due to the heightened tension between India and Pakistan after the mutilation of two jawans and the death sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav, India has tightened its medical visa rules for Pakistanis.
From now onwards it will take a letter of recommendation from the Pakistan Prime Minister’s foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz to External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will enable patients from there to get the travel nod.
The decision may impact hundreds of Pakistani citizens who each year apply for, and obtain, medical visas from the Indian high commission in Islamabad to visit India for treatment.
The move is the second by India over the past eight days involving humanitarian relations that the two nations have long tried to shield from their larger bilateral tensions. India last week sent back 50 Pakistani schoolchildren who were visiting at the invitation of a non-profit group and had arrived on the day Pakistani soldiers allegedly beheaded two Indian soldiers.
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