Headley effect: Govt reworks visa form

Determined to plug the loopholes in visa procedures that Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operative David Coleman Headley had exploited, the country has reworked its visa form.

Determined to plug the loopholes in visa procedures that Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operative David Coleman Headley had exploited, the country has reworked its visa form.

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The home ministry’s orders for the new forms came into effect for Pakistani nationals and foreigners applying at the Indian mission in Islamabad early this month. Bangladesh and the United Kingdom are next on the ministry’s radar, largely because of large number of visitors that enter India from the two countries.

“We intend to notify the new forms for the UK and Bangladesh by June,” a senior home ministry official said. Britain and Bangladesh were selected on account of the contrasting profile of tourists from the two countries.

Pakistan-origin Daood Gilani had changed his name to David Coleman Headley before applying for an Indian visa.

Learning from this experience, the new form will ask foreigners where they have travelled in the past and if they had changed their names at any point in the past.