ISLAMABAD: Forty-one Pakistani nationals, who were visiting their relatives in India before the COVID-19 lockdowns came into effect in the two countries, returned home after crossing the Wagah-Attari border on Thursday.

Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi said in a statement on Thursday that these Pakistanis had came to India on different visas, including visit, pilgrimage and medical travel permits, and got stuck in Agra, Delhi, Haryana and parts of India’s Punjab province.

“It is the mission’s sincere hope and effort that with the cooperation of the Indian side, the remaining more than 145 stranded Pakistanis would be able to return home at the earliest,” the high commission said in a statement.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs circulated an official letter on Tuesday, informing the relevant authorities to facilitate the movement of 41 stranded Pakistanis and enable them “to reach Attari in the morning of 16 April 2020.”

The letter also mentioned that the arrangement was made on the request of the Pakistani high commission.

Asked about the development, the Pakistani spokesperson Aisha Farooqui told Arab News that the 41 nationals were among “a bigger group” visiting “divided families” on the other side of the border, referring to the Muslim households that were broken after the region was split into two states at the time of independence in August 1947.

She did not share further details.

However, the Indian ministry’s letter instructed the authorities to screen all Pakistani citizens for COVID-19 before allowing them to return to their country.

“It is requested that all returning Pakistan nationals may be screened as per the international norms and existing provisions of the Government of India and only asymptomatic individuals may be allowed to return,” it said.