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Hindustan Times journalist asked to leave Pakistan
Kanwar Sandhu, resident editor of the Hindustan Times' Chandigarh edition, said he returned without making a fuss as he wanted to avoid "embarrassment" but vowed to take up the issue with the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
Kanwar Sandhu, resident editor of the Hindustan Times' Chandigarh edition, was on Friday asked to leave Pakistan hours after he reached the country in the first major sour incident in recent India-Pakistan ties.
Sandhu said he returned without making a fuss as he wanted to avoid "embarrassment" but vowed to take up the issue with the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
He said the authorities did not tell him why he was being sent back but thought it had "something to do" with his 1991 visit to Pakistan "when I wrote something they perhaps didn't like".
Sandhu was part of a 45-member delegation accompanying Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala to Pakistan for a visit to a village where the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, blessed Bhai Kanhaiya, founder of the Sevapanthi sect of Sikhs.
"I had a valid visa. There was great warmth and cordiality as we crossed over at (the) Wagah (border). We had checked into a hotel in Lahore when the immigration authorities descended and said there was a problem with my visa," a furious Sandhu said.
He said his passport had been retained at the border and he was told it would be returned to him later.
"The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued me the visa. Why did they give it to me if there was a problem?" Sandhu asked.
"I left because I didn't want to cause any embarrassment. I am told that Chautala, as also the Indian High Commission in Islamabad will take up the issue with the Pakistani authorities," Sandhu said.
"They never told me why I was being asked to leave. Perhaps it had something to do with my visit in 1991 when I wrote something they perhaps didn't like," he added.
During that visit, Sandhu, who was then with the India Today news magazine, had visited Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Pakistan-administered Kashmir and even interviewed the then prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
