LAHORE, Aug 10: The Federal Investigation Agency stopped on Friday some 250 Hindus from crossing into India for about seven hours although they had ‘legitimate’ travel documents for visiting religious places.

The immigration authorities insisted that the Hindus needed either ‘NoC or security clearance’, later allowed them to proceed to cross the border.

“We stopped the Hindus on the instruction of our boss and allowed them to cross over to India also on his order,” an FIA official told Dawn.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik reacted impulsively to ‘unconfirmed’ media reports that over 60 Hindu families comprising 250 people might not return because they were facing harassment, looting and kidnapping.

“Since the Hindus have legitimate documents and a visit visa for a month there is no genuine reason to stop them from travelling to India,” the FIA official said, adding that the NoC was required if visitors were going abroad in groups. “But even then it is not mandatory,” he said.

A source in the interior ministry said that after the media reports that the Hindu families leaving for India might not return, the minister asked the FIA to stop them from crossing over to India but also interrogate them.

“While the immigration authorities refused to allow the Hindus to cross the border, an FIA Lahore team reached Wagah and interviewed each of them,” the source said, adding that they (the visitors) assured the agency that they had no plan to stay back in India because they loved their motherland.

“They also gave a ‘verbal undertaking’ to the FIA about their return and about not indulging in any activity there to defame Pakistan,” he said.

The Hindu families that had started reaching Wagah around 8am got dismayed when they were told that they could not travel and they should better go home and come back with NoCs from the interior ministry. None of them left, rather they held a ‘silent sit-in’ for about half an hour. At around 3pm they were told they could cross the border.

“We were disappointed when told that we could not travel to India. We failed to understand why we are being stopped when we have genuine documents,” Anoop Kumar who is from Sindh said.

Joined by Mukesh, Narain, Rajish and Santosh Puri, Mr Kumar told reporters they visited India each year to take part in religious festivals.

“It is difficult to leave our businesses here and take refuge in another country. Some do it in extreme circumstances,” Mr Kumar said.

Meanwhile, deputy director of Evacuee Trust Property Board Fraz Abbas told Dawn that 115 Hindu pilgrims left for India on Friday and the remaining would leave on Saturday.

“We provided them free accommodation and food,” he said.

ETPB deputy secretary Azhar Sulehri said the Indian High Commission had issued one-month visa to 250 Hindus intending to visit their holy places.

“They belong to Jacobabad, Quetta, Umarkot and some other places of Balochistan and Sindh,” he said.