NEW DELHI, May 31: India’s home ministry expressed regret on Saturday over the unceremonious deportation of Pakistan’s human rights campaigner Ansar Burney the previous night, insisting that he was in fact always welcome to visit the country.

The leading rights activist, who has fought for the release of Indian death row prisoners Kashmir Singh and Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan, was deported on Friday from here back to Dubai by an Emirates Airways flight at around 2030 hours because of a “look-out” notice against him, reports said.

The home ministry offered a weak explanation. “There have been reports in the media about Mr Ansar Burney having been deported when he entered New Delhi on Friday. It is clarified that on his arrival from Dubai at Delhi IGI Airport on Friday evening Mr Burney, was denied entry, and not deported, by the immigration official on duty on account of inadequate documentation,” the home ministry said.

Mr Burney told CNN-IBN that when he arrived at Delhi, the officer at the airport was very happy to meet him. “He then asked to me to wait. After a while he took me to the immigration office and half an hour after that I got to know that they have plans to deport me and send me back to Dubai. I tried to tell the officers that I have come to India for important meetings, talks about prisoner exchange,” he said.