Home Ministry approves Pakistani shooters’ visa for ISSF World Cup in New Delhi

02/18/2019

The Home Ministry of India has approved Pakistani shooters’ visa for visiting the country so as to participate in the upcoming ISSF World Cup in New Delhi. This event is a qualifying round for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which will get underway on February 23 with about 500 shooters in contention.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), on Monday, stated that the participation of Pakistan shooters and presence of officials for the upcoming ISSF World Cup in New Delhi is not going to be a problem and claimed their request to travel was approved by Home Ministry and the visa request was forwarded to the High Commission and Islamabad. NRAI Secretary Rajiv Bhatia also stated that the participation of Pakistan shooters should go ahead.

“I received a call from the High Commission on Friday and they confirmed the names again. Hopefully visa will be granted today. Two shooters and a coach from Pakistan are supposed to come on 20 February. Home Ministry has cleared it so there’s no denial on that,” Bhatia told ANI reporters.

Meanwhile, there has been a further breaking down of relationship between India and Pakistan in the regard of the terror attack in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir. There were also questions regarding whether athletes from the neighbouring country will be allowed to travel to India for the global event which is a very important qualifying event for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

There also have been several other forms of protests on Indian sporting circuit in the aftermath of the Pulwama Terror attack where at least 40 CRPF soldiers were killed, the responsibility for the attack was claimed by a Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed group.

The Cricket Club of India (CCI), an affiliated unit of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has come up covering a portrait of former cricketer and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan at its headquarters in Mumbai. Later, Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium also removed photos of Pakistani players from its premises. In response, PCB issued a statement expressing ‘regret’ over the move.

Earlier, it was believed home ministry would give the team the go-ahead to travel but things only went worst since Thursday.