Burney deportation: FRRO officer transferred

A senior Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office officer was transferred following an apparent mistake of deporting a prominent human rights activist from Pakistan...

A senior Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO) officer was transferred following an apparent mistake of deporting a prominent human rights activist from Pakistan, Ansar Burney, on May 31 from the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Following the embarrassing miscommunication, assistant foreigner regional registration officer (AFRRO) L K Bisht who was in-charge of immigration at IGI that day, has been transferred.

Burney has been instrumental in raising a voice for the release of Indian death row prisoners Kashmir Singh and Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan. He was deported from New Delhi back to Dubai.

Story continues below this ad

Sources said Burney, who has served as the Human Rights Minister in the interim government in Pakistan, was deported by an Emirates Airways flight due to a ‘look out’ notice served against him.

However, in April, Burney had visited India and was given a warm welcome despite a lookout notice taken out on him.

Sources said that this time, the FRRO officials denied him entry, citing the lookout order, as there was no previous intimation from the Home Ministry that he should be let in. He got his transfer orders from the Intelligence Bureau.

“He should have told his seniors about his arrival rather than just following Home Ministry’s notice,” said a senior official.

Story continues below this ad

After the news of his deportation reached the Ministry of Home Affairs, they claimed that deportation could have taken place because of “some mistake”.