WASHINGTON – Four US Congressmen have asked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to refuse visas to Pakistani nationals who praised the assassination of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and showed support for his assassin Mumtaz Qadri. In a letter sent to Clinton, Congressmen Gary Ackerman, Steve Israel, Peter King and Michael McCaul said “some of the most prominent clerics, journalists and lawyers who have praised Taseer’s death and have demonstrated support of his murderer, are people who frequently travel to the US and hold American visas”, PTI reported.”We urge you to identify those Pakistani citizens that have shown demonstrable support of governor Taseer’s assassination.
We further request that visas not be issued to such people and that applications for new visas from those who have endorsed this heinous crime be denied,” the letter said. The US Congressmen said in their letter that their request for denial of visas to Qadri’s supporters was “not just a moral issue but also an issue of national security”.
