Pakistani Family Stranded in India After Closure of Attari-Wagah Border Amid COVID-19 Spread, Allowed to Return Home
The family had come to India for the surgery and was not allowed on Thursday to use the Attari-Wagah joint check post to reach Pakistan, which has been shutdown following the lockdown due to COVID-19. The family stayed with an Amritsar-based Indian journalist.
Amritsar, March 20: A Pakistani family with a child, who underwent surgery in an Indian hospital and was stuck here after the closure of the Attari-Wagha check post, was finally allowed to enter their country on Friday after the intervention of senior officials of both nations.
The family had come to India for the surgery and was not allowed on Thursday to use the Attari-Wagah joint check post to reach Pakistan, which has been shutdown following the lockdown due to COVID-19. The family stayed with an Amritsar-based Indian journalist. Pakistan Closes Wagah Border with India for Two Weeks Amid Coronavirus Scare.
"The Pakistani family was stuck here yesterday. Today the Interior Minister of Pakistan and India's External Affairs Minister on humanitarian grounds allowed this family to go back," journalist Ravinder Singh Robin tweeted.
He said the family got a prompt reply (from both countries). "I am thankful to both the governments, news (persons) here (India) and there (Pakistan) and to everyone," the child said in a video posted by Robin.
On prompt replies of the government, the child's father said the family was very happy that both governments made efforts for saving the life of their child. "We are thankful to both the governments, to the people and Facebook for helping us out," he said.
"We have not lost anything in coming to India. We have gained too much on coming here. We received a lot of love, we came to know about the level of humanity of the people here," the child's mother replied on being asked what she lost and what she gained in coming to India.
Expressing gratitude to Robin, she said people in India are very generous and the "universe is lasting longer for such people". The movement of foreigners and commodities from Pakistan at the joint check post (JCP) at Attari was suspended indefinitely on March 13 by the Indian authorities as a precautionary measure against coronavirus spread.
Commodities arriving from Afghanistan via Pakistan would also not be allowed to enter India through Attari. Pakistan too on Thursday closed the Wagah border. According to the notification issued by the Interior Ministry, the border will remain closed for two weeks. Coronavirus Outbreak Live News Updates.
Earlier, 43 Indians, who were associated with the Pakistan Super League and were stuck at the Attari-Wagha check post for over eight hours over technical immigration issues, were allowed to enter India on March 19.
They were all quarantined in a government hospital in Amritsar, some 250 km from the state capital Chandigarh, as a precaution to prevent the spread of coronavirus, state health officials said.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 20, 2020 05:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).