India Suspends All Pakistani Visa: India on Thursday (24 April 2025) announced the cancellation of all visas issued to Pakistani citizens from April 27 and advised Indian citizens living in Pakistan to return home as soon as possible.
India took this step amid rising tensions between the two countries over the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. 26 people were killed in this attack. The Ministry of External Affairs also clarified that the decision to cancel the visa will not apply to the long-term visas already issued to Hindu Pakistani citizens and their visas ‘will remain valid’. New Delhi also announced the suspension of visa services for Pakistani citizens with immediate effect as a response to the cross-border relations of the most heinous terrorist attack on citizens in India after the Mumbai terror attack on November 26 in 2008.
This new move comes a day after India announced a slew of measures against Pakistan, including expelling Pakistani military attache, suspending the 1960 Indus Water Treaty and immediate closure of the Attari land-transit post. The decision to take tough action against Pakistan was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.
The Ministry of External Affairs said that all existing valid visas issued by India to Pakistani citizens have been canceled from April 27. It said that medical visas issued to Pakistani citizens will be valid only till April 29. The Ministry of External Affairs said that all Pakistani citizens present in India should leave the country before the visa period expires. It advised Indian citizens to avoid traveling to Pakistan.
From which date will this order of India be implemented?
“In continuation of the decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, the Government of India has decided to suspend visa services for Pakistani nationals with immediate effect,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. “All existing valid visas issued by India to Pakistani nationals have been cancelled with effect from April 27. Medical visas issued to Pakistani nationals will also be valid only till April 29,” the statement said. “All Pakistani nationals currently present in India must leave India before the expiry of the revised visa period,” it said. The number of Pakistani nationals holding Indian visas was not immediately known.
Indian citizens advised to avoid travelling to Pakistan
The Ministry of External Affairs said, “Indian citizens are strongly advised to avoid travelling to Pakistan. Indian citizens currently present in Pakistan are also advised to return to India as soon as possible.” A day after the brutal terrorist attack in Pahalgam killed 26 people, a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) was held on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which India’s counter measures against this cowardly attack were finalized and the security forces were directed to maintain “high alertness”. Giving a strong message to Pakistan, India had taken several decisions including a massive reduction in diplomatic relations with it, suspending the more than six-decade-old Indus Water Treaty and closing the Attari post.
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