Pak refuses visas to British officials in protest against arrest of its civilians

October 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - British Foreign Minister David Miliband Thursday rang up his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna and expressed his sympathies at the suicide car bomb attack outside the Indian embassy in Kabul.

October 6th, 2009 LONDON - The raging row between Pakistan and Britain on the issue of delay in issuing visas to Pakistanis by the British authorities is expected to overshadow the anti-terror talks between both countries when the British Secretary for Home Affairs Alan Johnson meets Pakistani political leaders in Islamabad. Johnson, who arrived in Islamabad along with Defence Secretary Bob Iansworth on Monday, would meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other leaders to discuss several other issues apart from the visa row.

October 4th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - British Secretary for Home Affairs Alan Johnson would be arriving in Islamabad on Monday (October 5) to meet Pakistan Foreign Ministry officials and reduce tension between both countries that has crept in due to the delay on part of Britain in issuing visas to Pakistanis. Johnson, accompanied by Defence Secretary Bob Iansworth, would meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and discuss several other issues apart from the visa issue.

October 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Once coveted by Indian techies, more than one fourth of the H-1B visas for skilled professionals are yet to be grabbed, with the US job market still to pick up as it recovers from its deepest recession in decades. By Sep 25 only about 46,700 of the H-1B visas in the general category were filled up against a Congressional mandated cap of 65,000, according to the latest update by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

September 22nd, 2009 LAHORE - Over 350 Indian Sikh pilgrims, in Pakistan to attend the death anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, have urged New Delhi and Islamabad to allow pilgrims to travel without visas. The Sikhs, travelling under the aegis of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee, arrived here Monday and would be visiting Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib situated in Narowal district of Pakistan.

September 10th, 2009 LONDON - British anti-terror border controls were described as wholly inadequate after a newspaper revealed that only 29 out of 66,000 Pakistani immigration applicants were interviewed by British officials. Visa checks on immigrants from Pakistan were condemned as a sham after the Daily Mail said official figures showed that just 29 out of 66,000 applicants were interviewed by officials since Britain put in place a supposedly rigorous system last October.

August 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Two of the ten Pakistani students who were detained during counter-terrorism raids in Manchester and Liverpool earlier this year have flown back home, discontinuing their fight against deportation. Abdul Wahab Khan, 26, and Shoaib Khan, 27 were among ten Pakistanis who were detained in April on national security grounds after officials claimed that they have foiled a major bombing plot by Al-Qaeda.

July 20th, 2009 KABUL - Eleven civilians including a woman and a child were killed in a bomb blast in southwestern Afghanistan, while NATO-led German forces killed three civilians after mistaking them for Taliban militants in the northern region, officials said Monday. The 11 civilians were travelling in a minibus in Gulistan district of Farah province Sunday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, spokesman for police forces in the western region, said.

July 19th, 2009 TEHRAN - Iran Sunday freed a British embassy staffer, the last of nine arrested on suspicion in fomenting dissent after alleged fraud in Iran's June 12 presidential elections. Hossein Rassam, chief analyst of the British embassy, had been detained for more than three weeks.

July 4th, 2009 LONDON - British immigration officials in Pakistan devote just 11 minutes to scrutinize and pass a visa application in a country considered to be the hotbed of terrorism, the Telegraph has revealed. The revelation that officials are also not checking supporting evidence in thousands of applications from Pakistan and Afghanistan has fuelled security concerns.

May 21st, 2009 LONDON - After the arrest of 11 Pakistan students for allegedly plotting terror attacks in Britain, it was revealed that those students had entered Britain on false student visas, but it seems that it was only a part of a larger conspiracy, as it has now been revealed that thousands of young Pakistan civilians had exploited a hole in Britain's immigration defences to enroll themselves as students at a network of fraud colleges. The Times has unearthed a major scam in which fraudsters have earned millions of dollars by luring students from Pakistan to get admission in sham colleges in Britain.

April 26th, 2009 LONDON - Principal of the Edwardes College in Peshawar Dr. David Gosling has accused the British High Commission officials in Pakistan of a dereliction of duty.

April 23rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has asked the British government not to deport its citizens who were rounded up on suspicion of links with terrorists, but were later released, as the UK Police could not produce evidence against them. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said students had to undergo a harsh time behind bars and now it is up to the UK Government to compensate the students.

April 22nd, 2009 LONDON - A lawyer for the three Pakistani men facing deportation after being arrested in anti-terror raids earlier this month says his clients will fight to stay on in Britain. Mohammed Ayub says the men are in Britain lawfully on student visas, are not extremists and have done nothing wrong.

April 21st, 2009 LONDON - Students of Pakistani origin are being granted British visas on the basis of a telephone interview, even as investigation teams probe different aspects of a crackdown involving twelve alleged Pakistan 'student' terrorists. The Telegraph reports that British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has admitted that some visa applications are being decided over the telephone.