After Swedish tourists, Germans found violating visa rules by attending religious meet

Seven German tourists were on Friday asked by Assam authorities not to leave the resort where they are staying as they allegedly violated visa norms by participating in a religious congregation, a police officer said.

The instruction was given to the German travellers a day after three Swedish tourists were deported from the northeastern state for the same offence.

These German people were questioned on Friday after it was found that they had attended religious congregations at Tinsukia, Margherita and Karbi Anglong which they cannot do while travelling on a tourist visa, Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) G P Singh said.

‘'To participate in religious activities, they need to have an M1 or missionary visa and register with the Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRRO) which they have not done. The tourists have been informed about the violation of the rules,'' Singh told reporters.

They will be allowed to leave only after paying a fine of $500 each and furnishing their return tickets from the country but until then they have been asked to stay in the resort in Kaziranga National Park, he said.

''In case they are not ready to pay the fine, we will consider filing a case against them,'' the police officer said.

Action, however, will be initiated against two Indians - one hailing from Jharkhand who is associated with a missionary organisation and another from Assam’s Karbi Anglong district -for inviting the foreigners and not informing them of the necessary visas required, Singh added.

On Thursday, three tourists from Sweden, who were detained for participating in a prayer meeting held allegedly for converting people to Christianity, were deported from Dibrugarh.

The trio was taken into custody on Wednesday after the police initiated a suo motu case for alleged violation of visa rules by attending the meeting at a tea garden in Ghinai under Namrup police station, Dibrugarh Superintendent of Police Shwetank Mishra said.

The Swedish tourists were also fined $500 each, which they paid to the district authorities.

The three-day prayer meeting was organised by the United Church Forum, a body of different churches, with permission from the district administration.