PAKISTAN PILGRIMS SEEK EASY RULES FOR INDIA VISA

NATURAL WITH URDU SPEECH

DURATION: 3.18

SOURCE: ANI

TV AND WEB RESTRICTIONS: NO ACCESS BBC

Pakistan pilgrims seek easy rules for India visa.

A group of nearly 460 Muslim pilgrims from Pakistan, on a visit to Ajmer Sharif and other religious places in India, plead for easy visa rules between the neighbouring countries.

SHOWS:

AMRITSAR, PUNJAB, INDIA (JUNE 14, 2010) (ANI-NO ACCESS BBC)

1. A TRAIN AT THE ATTARI RAILWAY PLATFORM (3 SHOTS)

2. TRAIN MOVING (2 SHOTS)

3. A BOARD READING ‘ATTARI’

4. PAKISTAN PILGRIMS AT THE RAILWAY PLATFORM (2 SHOTS)

5. A BOARD READING ‘INDIAN CUSTOMS WELCOME YOU’

6. PILGRIMS AT THE RAILWAY PLATFORM (2 SHOTS)

7. A RELIGIOUS CLOTHE

8. PILGRIMS STANDING AT THE RAILWAY PLATFORM (2 SHOTS)

9. (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) MUNIR, A PILGRIM FROM PAKISTAN, SAYING: “People want that they get passports and visas easily, whenever they submit passports but it’s very difficult for people and we want from your government that they should ease the rules and regulations in the visa process so that more and more people can come here because in Pakistan we give quota for 1,000 Indian people but here for us the quota is only for 500 people, so we would request the Indian government to please sanction the quota of 1,000 people or the maximum that is possible.”

10. PILGRIMS SITTING

11. PASSPORT

12. (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) ASAD ABAS, ANOTHER PILGRIM FROM PAKISTAN, SAYING: “In our group 460 people are there and all of us will go to Delhi, then after that we will leave for Ajmer Sharif. We have come to visit the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, so that we can go there and also pray for the better relationship between both the countries and for love and peace.”

13. PILGRIMS AT THE RAILWAY PLATFORM

14. PILGRIMS STANDING AT THE VISA OFFICE

STORY: A group of nearly 460 pilgrims from Pakistan reached Attari in Amritsar district of India’s northern Punjab state on Monday (June 14).

They will participate in the annual ‘Urs’, the fair organized on the death anniversary of Sufi saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, which began at his tomb in Ajmer city of India’s northwestern Rajasthan state on Sunday (June 13).

Pilgrims regretted that some of their friends and family members have not yet received visas for the congregation.

“People want that they get passports and visas easily whenever they submit passports. But it’s very difficult for people and we want from your government that they should ease the rules and regulations in the visa process so that more and more people can come here because in Pakistan we give quota for 1,000 Indian people but here for us the quota is only for 500 people, so we would request the Indian government to please sanction the quota of 1,000 people or the maximum that is possible,” said Munir.

“In our group 460 people are there and all of us will go to Delhi, then after that we will leave for Ajmer Sharif. We have come to visit the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, so that we can go there and also pray for the better relationship between both the countries and for love and peace,” said Asad Abas.

“Urs”, as the congregation is called in Urdu, marks the death anniversary of Moin-ud-din-Chisti who is popularly called “Garib Nawaz”, or the “messiah of the poor”.

The congregation is very popular among Muslim devotees across South Asia who assemble at Ajmer for the purpose every year.

The gathering is considered to be the second largest congregation of Muslims at one place after Mecca.