Stapled Chinese visas unacceptable: India
By IANSThursday, January 13, 2011
NEW DELHI - India Thursday said it won’t accept stapled visas issued by China for residents of Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh.
“Stapled Chinese visas are unacceptable to India. It has been conveyed to China. We will not accept it,” Defence Minister A.K. Antony told reporters here.
India raised the issue during Chinese premier Wen Jiabao’s three-day visit to New Delhi last month.
During the talks between the two sides, India made it abundantly clear that China must respect its concerns on Jammu and Kashmir just as New Delhi respects Beijing’s sensitivities on Tibet and Taiwan.
China has been giving stapled visas to people from Jammu and Kashmir, implicitly questioning the legality of New Delhi’s control over the divided Himalayan state.
On Tuesday, Arunachali weightlifter Sibi Yukar and his coach Abraham Kaya were refused permission to leave Delhi after immigration officials noticed that their Chinese visas had been issued on a separate paper and stapled to their passports.
