Two Kashmiri athletes have alleged that their visa applications to the United States were denied by officials citing the “current policy”, PTI reported on Monday. The two athletes Tanveer Hussain (pictured above) and Abid Khan were scheduled to participate in the 2017 World Snowshoe Championships in New York on February 24-25.
Their claims follow US President Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigrants, travellers and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries and an “extreme vetting” process on people entering the country.
“I was interviewed by US embassy officials for over six minutes before they turned down my application. All my documents were complete, but they said, ‘Sorry, we cannot give you visa because of our current policy,’” Tanveer Hussain told the Kashmir Observer.
However, a spokesperson for the US Embassy in New Delhi on Wednesday said, “Indian citizens are not affected by the recent executive order”, while refusing to discuss specific visa cases “for privacy reasons”.
On Facebook, Clyde Rabideau, the mayor of Saranac Lake, where the tournament is held, posted a conversation between him and Khan, during which Khan had informed him about the visa denial.
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