New Delhi: In a move that will benefit more than one lakh Afghan nationals belonging to Hindu-Sikh community settled outside India, the Government has decided to remove them from special security list and powers have been delegated to Indian missions abroad to issue Visas to them without referring to the Home Ministry, official sources said tonight (Feb 11, 2004).

A decision to this effect was taken after a review of Visa policy for Afghan nationals of Hindu-Sikh community staying in third countries in consultation with the External Affairs Ministry and the Intelligence Bureau, the sources said.

They were earlier kept under prior reference category (PRC) due to security reasons and Indian Embassies used to refer all Visa applications to the Home Ministry for clearance. This process used to take three to six months.