India announces visa for newborn Pakistani child

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  • Sushma says kid suffering from heart ailment

India’s Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that India would grant medical visa for treatment of a newborn baby from Pakistan whose family said he is suffering from a cardiac ailment.

The assurance to the family from Lahore came after Rohaan’s mother sought the minister’s intervention. “We will give medical visa for his treatment in India,” Sushma tweeted. A number of Pakistani citizens had requested India to issue visa for the child’s treatment.

“When I hug my child, he smiles. He knows he is safe with me. I want to save him, I really do. Help in visa,” Mehwish Mukhtar, mother of the child, had tweeted. In recent months, Sushma has heeded to request by a number of Pakistani citizens in granting medical visas despite strain in ties between the two countries.

On August 15, the minister said that India would grant medical visa to Pakistani nationals in genuine pending cases. “We will grant medical visa in all bonafide cases pending with us,” she had tweeted. In May, the minister had said that India would grant medical visa to those Pakistani nationals whose applications were recommended by then Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz.