The cricket matches between India and Pakistan next month may not witness  a big  inflow of  visitors from across the border because the Union government has decided to restrict the number of  visas in view of the spate of terror strikes in the country.

The number of visas issued will be limited and given after “all round authentication” and “furnishing of advance schedule of  stay and return journey”, sources told Deccan Herald. The number of  Pakistani cricket fans allowed to cross the border may be less than 400, they said.  All the visitors have been asked to inform, in advance, date of their journey, accommodation/hotel booking, name and address of hosts and time, date and mode of journey.

Last year the government was generous in issuing visas to Pakistani cricket fans but this time round in view of the terror scenario in both countries, it is trying to scale down the “friendly influx”.   Intelligence agencies have sounded out the authorities on the possibility of   Pakistani nationals doing the disappearing act after entering into the country as cricket fans. The Union Home Ministry has officially admitted that several of  “disappearing tourists” have indeed “turned terrorists” in the past.

The Ministry’s  “realisation”  had its fall out on the ‘liberal visa regime’ during the so-called Confidence Building Measures (CBM) between the two countries. The cricket matches held at Mohali, Haryana, are particularly “vulnerable” to “disguised visits” sources said.

Significantly, Union Home Shivraj Patil had acknowledged that eleven persons who came to India to watch the cricket matches at Mohali in 2005 have gone missing and “might have been terrorists”.
The minister had suggested this soon after the  Mumbai train blasts on July 11, 2006, which claimed 209 lives and injured more than 700 people.  Pakistani cricket lovers come to Mohali via the Indo-Pak Wagah border in Punjab.
The Indo-Pak One-Day International (ODI) at Mohali is scheduled on November 9. Both the countries will play five ODIs at Gauwhati (Nov 6), Mohali (Nov 9), Kanpur (Nov 11),  Gowalior (Nov 15) and Jaipur (Nov 18). 

This will be followed by three tests on November 22 (Delhi), November 30 (Kolkata) and December 8 (Bangalore).
More than 1,50,130 foreign nationals ‘disappeared’ after coming to India between 2003 and 2006.
A major chunk of this – a whopping 72,415 – were Bangladeshis followed by Afghans (34,767) and Pakistansi ( 21,389) have ‘disappeared’ in the guise of tourists. 

In Madhya Pradesh, 1,407 Pakistanis disappeared during 2003 and 2006.  The efforts put in by intelligence and security agencies later helped intercept and deport 10,829 Bangladeshis, 371 Pakistanis, 94 Afghans, seven Sudanese and two Yemen nationals, sources said.