{"id":41556,"date":"2018-04-15T16:51:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-15T11:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=41556"},"modified":"2018-04-15T16:58:01","modified_gmt":"2018-04-15T11:28:01","slug":"india-protest-pak-denying-diplomats-access-sikh-pilgrims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/india-news\/india-protest-pak-denying-diplomats-access-sikh-pilgrims\/","title":{"rendered":"India protest against Pak for denying diplomat\u2019s access to Sikh pilgrims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In another diplomatic controversy, India has lodged a strong protest with\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0over blocking Sikh pilgrims&#8217; access to Indian diplomats and consular teams, the\u00a0Ministry of External Affairs\u00a0(MEA) said in a press release on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A standard practice has been that the Indian High Commission\u2019s consular\/protocol team is attached with visiting pilgrims, to perform consular and protocol duties, like helping out in medical or family emergencies. However, this year, the consular team has been denied access to Indian Sikh pilgrims,&#8221; the MEA said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mea.gov.in\/press-releases.htm?dtl\/29820\/Pakistan_prevents_Sikh_pilgrims_from_meeting_Indian_High_Commissioner_and_staff\"><strong>Pakistan prevents Sikh pilgrims from meeting Indian High Commissioner and staff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On Thursday last about 1,800\u00a0Sikh pilgrims\u00a0had travelled to Pakistan to celebrate Baisakhi festival at\u00a0Gurdwara Panja Sahib\u00a0in Rawalpindi district. During their travel Pakistani authorities have repeatedly blocked the\u00a0Indian High Commission\u00a0from performing basic consular and protocol duties for Indian citizens.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/world-news\/pakistan-asks-world-bank-vouch-india-abiding-iwt-40889\">Pakistan asks World Bank to vouch India abiding IWT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Ministry of External Affairs further said, &#8220;The team could not meet the pilgrims on their arrival at Wagah Railway Station on April 12. Similarly, it was denied entry into Gurdwara Panja Sahib on April 14, for a scheduled meeting with pilgrims there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/world-news\/dubai-compares-disciplined-indians-criminal-pakistanis-40820\">Dubai compares disciplined Indians to criminal Pakistanis<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The statement issued by the MEA has also detailed a snub to the Indian High Commissioner\u00a0Ajay Bisaria, who was turned away while on his way to meet the pilgrims at the shrine on the \u201cgrounds of security concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It said, &#8220;Moreover, on April 14, the Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, who was to visit Gurdwara Panja Sahib at the invitation of the Chairman of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), was suddenly asked to return while en route to the shrine, for unspecified \u2018security\u2019 reasons.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The statement concludes saying, \u201cthese incidents constitute a clear violation of the Vienna Convention of 1961, the bilateral Protocol to visit Religious Shrines, 1974 and the Code of Conduct of 1992, recently reaffirmed by both countries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In another diplomatic controversy, India has lodged a strong protest with\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0over blocking Sikh pilgrims&#8217; access to Indian diplomats and consular teams, the\u00a0Ministry of External Affairs\u00a0(MEA) said in a press release on Sunday. &#8220;A standard practice has been that the Indian High Commission\u2019s consular\/protocol team is attached with visiting pilgrims, to perform consular and protocol duties, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":41559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1497],"tags":[46641,42,76,21,46642],"yst_prominent_words":[46636,46637,4291,46633,46629,5975,46632,46628,20851,3887,46635,46634,12622,12612,3703,46630,5200,46638,41376,46631],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2018\/04\/15164808\/new.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41556"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=41556"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=41556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- html is corrupted -->