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Indians prepare to return Pakistani hospitality
Unlike India's tour of Pak, New Delhi will issue car passes so that fans can drive past the Wagah border check-post for the Mohali Test.
Indians will have a chance to return the generous hospitality the country's cricket fans received in Pakistan last year when some 10,000 Pakistani cricket lovers arriving for the upcoming series.
Acknowledging that India's tour of Pakistan in February-March last year perhaps did more for people-to-people contacts than anything else, New Delhi has given the green signal to the Indian high commission in Islamabad to issue 10,000 visas to Pakistanis to witness the February-April series, officials said.
"We will facilitate the visit of as many fans as possible within the physical limitations of our high commission," a senior official told IANS. "All those who have confirmed tickets for the matches will be issued visas."
That was the same rule Pakistan had followed to issue visas to Indian fans.
The Indians - players, fans, journalists, dignitaries, including Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's siblings - all came back with heart warming tales of the abundance of hospitality and goodwill the people of Pakistan showered on them.
The officials said the high commission would hold special visa camps in Lahore and Karachi.
The Pakistan team is scheduled to arrive in India Feb 24 for the more than one-month tour during which they will play three Tests and five one-dayers.
The tour's itinerary is still being finalised. The tour opener is expected to be a three-day match against the Indian Board President's X1 in Dharmasala.
Unlike the Indian tour of Pakistan, New Delhi will issue special car passes in some cases so that Pakistani fans can drive into the country for the Test at Mohali in Punjab, crossing the Wagah border check-post.
For those crossing the border on foot, there will be special buses to ferry them to the stadium and take them back at the end of the match. Special trains will also be operated from Attari on the Indian side of the border to Chandigarh.
Those coming to see the Tests will be given seven-day visas and three-day visas will be issued for the one-dayers, officials said.
