Its not everyday that one gets a chance to cross Wagah and that too on foot.
Well… I was fortunate enough to get an ‘on foot’ visa from the Pakistan High Commission and actually cross Wagah on foot.
I was with a grouop of students and a teacher.
Just as we reached the immigration counters on the Indian side of Wagah (which is actually called Attari)…we were told that we couldn’t cross the border on foot. The reason given to us was that we need to have special permission from the Ministry of External affairs to do so. The man at the counter actually showed us a copy of such letters from people who had crossed the border before. The letter was actually issued by the Indian High Commission at Islamabad requesting the immigration authorities to allow a person to cross on foot.
He said that he had no problems in allowing us to cross the border on bus. But then the Pakistan immigration would have stopped us saying that ‘ we were supposed to arrive on foot’. We were in a fix and getting a letter issued from a government authority is quite a pain in India.
Nevertheless, as mobile phones don’t work at Wagah (except Vodafone…as some say) and neither are there international or ISD phone booths at Wagah…I had to actually hire a taxi go back 4-5 kilometres to the place where my mobile started working. Then I had to make quite a few calls for the Indian High Commission to fax a letter to the Wagah check post. But let me say that the High Commission authorities were very cooperative and helped us out.
So, we were back again at Wagah at the same immigration counter with the same man…who now smiled at us.
Immigration: We had to fill up the standard Indian immigration form. But the fun part was filling up the ‘flight no.’ column. We had to write ‘on foot’ on it.
Customs: The immigration guys give you a slip, where the number of bags need to be filled up.
This needs to be submitted to the customs. They scan your luggage and may want to manually check your baggage…ask a few questions…and you are on your way to the border. At Wagah its about half a kilometer walk from the customs to the border. Once you reach the border gate…the BSF people note down the passport details of the people who cross the border. And then you are right at the Indo-Pak gate
At the gate is a sentry from BSF…who checks your passports and just a metre away is the Pakistani sentry from the Rangers…who again checks your passports.
There is a line in between the two gates…which perhaps forms the border and the porter from the Indian side puts the luggage right on the line…from where the porter from the Pakistani side can pick it up.
Its just the reverse on the Pakistani side…first the entry with the rangers and then immigration and customs…and you are bang at Wagah on the other side.
The Pakistani immigration counters are much much better than the Indian side. While the Indian immigration counters give a feel of a railway station…the feeling on the Pakistani side is truly international…its like an international airport.
The Pakistani immigration counters even click photographs of people entering the country.
The walk is about a kilometer and a half…but its joy.
Well… I was fortunate enough to get an ‘on foot’ visa from the Pakistan High Commission and actually cross Wagah on foot.
I was with a grouop of students and a teacher.
Just as we reached the immigration counters on the Indian side of Wagah (which is actually called Attari)…we were told that we couldn’t cross the border on foot. The reason given to us was that we need to have special permission from the Ministry of External affairs to do so. The man at the counter actually showed us a copy of such letters from people who had crossed the border before. The letter was actually issued by the Indian High Commission at Islamabad requesting the immigration authorities to allow a person to cross on foot.
He said that he had no problems in allowing us to cross the border on bus. But then the Pakistan immigration would have stopped us saying that ‘ we were supposed to arrive on foot’. We were in a fix and getting a letter issued from a government authority is quite a pain in India.
Nevertheless, as mobile phones don’t work at Wagah (except Vodafone…as some say) and neither are there international or ISD phone booths at Wagah…I had to actually hire a taxi go back 4-5 kilometres to the place where my mobile started working. Then I had to make quite a few calls for the Indian High Commission to fax a letter to the Wagah check post. But let me say that the High Commission authorities were very cooperative and helped us out.
So, we were back again at Wagah at the same immigration counter with the same man…who now smiled at us.
Immigration: We had to fill up the standard Indian immigration form. But the fun part was filling up the ‘flight no.’ column. We had to write ‘on foot’ on it.
Customs: The immigration guys give you a slip, where the number of bags need to be filled up.
This needs to be submitted to the customs. They scan your luggage and may want to manually check your baggage…ask a few questions…and you are on your way to the border. At Wagah its about half a kilometer walk from the customs to the border. Once you reach the border gate…the BSF people note down the passport details of the people who cross the border. And then you are right at the Indo-Pak gateAt the gate is a sentry from BSF…who checks your passports and just a metre away is the Pakistani sentry from the Rangers…who again checks your passports.
There is a line in between the two gates…which perhaps forms the border and the porter from the Indian side puts the luggage right on the line…from where the porter from the Pakistani side can pick it up.
Its just the reverse on the Pakistani side…first the entry with the rangers and then immigration and customs…and you are bang at Wagah on the other side.
The Pakistani immigration counters are much much better than the Indian side. While the Indian immigration counters give a feel of a railway station…the feeling on the Pakistani side is truly international…its like an international airport.
The Pakistani immigration counters even click photographs of people entering the country.
The walk is about a kilometer and a half…but its joy.
