Over 90 Sikh pilgrims from Pakistan with visas, stopped from boarding indirect flight to India
Over 90 Pakistani Sikh pilgrims were denied boarding for an indirect flight to India due to missing documentation, including return tickets and government-mandated NOCs. Authorities have suggested they utilize the Wagah Border crossing instead to facilitate their pilgrimage.
Why it matters
The incident underscores the complex bureaucratic and diplomatic hurdles involved in cross-border religious travel between India and Pakistan.
Over 90 Pakistani Sikhs with visas for pilgrimage to Sri Hemkund Sahib in Uttarakhand were stopped by the immigration authorities on Friday (September 11, 2026) from boarding an indirect flight to India, officials said.
As many as 92 Pakistani Sikhs, including women and children, arrived at the Faisalabad International Airport (some 150 km from Lahore) to catch an indirect flight to India, an official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told PTI .
However, the authorities stopped them from boarding a Gulf-bound airline as they did not possess a return ticket and a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the federal government, the official added.
"The immigration officials told them to produce an NOC from the federal government and the return ticket, after which they would be allowed to proceed to their destination," he said.
Currently, there is no direct air, rail or road link between Pakistan and India.
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