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Cricket fans storm Wagah border
Peeved over the delay in immigration clearance for 3rd ODI, about 3,000 fans broke open the gates of this outpost.
Peeved over the delay in immigration clearance for the Lahore ODI, enthusiastic cricket fans on Sunday broke open the main gates of this border outpost and stormed the Immigration office building injuring three persons in the melee.
Trouble began when the fans started lining up since the break of dawn to cross over to Pakistan for Monday's One-day international.
As the crowd swelled to an estimated 3,000, the officials closed the main entry gate of the Wagah border and asked the people to come in queue.
According to officials, some irate elements in the mob then broke open the main gate and stormed the Immigration and Customs Building following which the staff manning the extra counters set up to clear the rush fled the scene.
The crowd then went on a rampage and indulged in stone pelting and smashed windowpanes causing injuries to three persons, who were admitted to a hospital nearby, they said.
Even as the immigration officials assured that all the people would be attended to and allowed to cross over subject to clearance of their papers, tension prevailed as the fans were visibly furious and restless.
A big crowd of cricket lovers raised slogans against immigration authorities and decried the "pathetic" attitude and poor arrangements at the Indo-Pak border.
A senior official of the Immigration Authority said, "Everything is being streamlined" and the crowd is being managed into queues."
"By evening we are committed to clear the entire backlog of 3,000 cricket lovers for Pakistan and no one would be disallowed to go to Pakistan subject to the clearance of Immigration formalities", he said adding that the police forces were also called to contain the mob and prevent any untoward incident.
"Here at the Wagah border there is a provision to clear only one thousand visitors during a day. It was difficult for the Custom and Immigration people to clear a crowd of three thousand people at once," he said.
