India rejects conspiracy over visas to Pak Hindus

India Saturday rejected Pakistan's charges of a "conspiracy" about giving so many visas to Pakistani Hindus, saying due process and diligence was exercised in accordance with a decades-long visa pact.

"We have exercised visas after due diligence and followed due process in accordance with the India-Pakistan visa pact which regulates travel between the two countries," government sources said.

"Pakistan has an exit control policy which empowers them to detain any traveller if the visas were not issued in proper categories and following the prescribed system," said the sources.

They were reacting to Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik's accusation alleging a "conspiracy" by India against Pakistan and demanded to know why the Indian High Commission in the Pakistani capital had issued so many visas to Hindus.

Malik refused to let the Hindus proceed beyond Jacobabad, Sindh, unless he was satisfied they would not take asylum in India citing religious persecution -- as some Pakistani Hindus had done earlier.

Eventually, after some hours, the Hindus were allowed to go after their representatives pledged to return to Pakistan.

About 250 Pakistani Hindus have moved to India after promising authorities here that they will return after completing their pilgrimage. Many of them complained of ill-treatment and persecution in Pakistan.