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Basharat Peer in New Delhi.
The closure of air and land routes between India and Pakistan from January 1, 2002 would leave thousands of Pakistani nationals stranded in India, Pakistan International Airlines officials in New Delhi on Friday said.
"The PIA is getting frantic calls from Pakistani nationals in India, asking for tickets to Pakistan. But it has only three flights to go, before the propellers stop on January 1, 2002 and the flights between India and Pakistan are grounded," a senior PIA official said.
"Even if we pack them to the maximum limit, we cannot transport more than 300 passengers," he added.
The official said that even by conservative estimates there would be at least 3,000 Pakistani nationals in India at the moment.
With the train and bus services too closing down on December 31, 2001 there would be hundreds of Pakistani nationals who are likely to get stranded in India.
The last trip of Samjhauta Express is on December 31, while that of Sada-e-Sarhad, the Delhi-Lahore bus service, is going to be Saturday morning.
Officials, incharge of the bus and train bookings to Pakistan, said that there is a mad rush for tickets to Pakistan.
Getting stranded in India is a haunting proposition for many Pakistanis, who have come here to visit their relatives.
When travel facilities between India and Pakistan were stopped, following the 1971 Indo-Pak war, it was reopened only after a seven-year gap.
Meanwhile, the PIA is discouraging Indian nationals, who are planning to travel to Pakistan.
"Once our operations close there would be problems for the Indian nationals, who would have reached Pakistan. They would be left only with the option of taking a circuitous route of Pakistan-Dubai-India to get back home," a senior PIA official told rediff.com.
The priority for PIA, according to its officials is getting as many Pakistanis on board, before the flights stop.
The last PIA flight from India on Monday would be carrying Pakistani officials and staffers of the Pakistani embassy.
Fifty per cent of the Pakistan embassy staffers would be going back, due to the downsizing of the embassy staff by India.
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