By IANS
New Delhi : India's junior archery team will head to Taipei early Thursday morning after two of the team members were given visas at the last moment after they produced additional evidence of their identity.
"We have received the visas of the two archers, for whom the Taipei government asked us to submit more documents, despite being shown the Indian passport," Paresh Mukherjee, senior vice-president of the Archery Association of India (AAI) told IANS, minutes after receiving the visas for the duo Wednesday.
"We initially decided to call off the tour after the officials said that the passport was not enough and that we have to submit more proofs about the date and place of birth of the two archers. But after we submitted the required documents the Taipei officials felt that they were on the back-foot and issued us the visas," he said.
The 32-member junior team will fly to Taipei, the Taiwanese capital, to take part in the second round of the Asia Grand Prix starting Wednesday. All the players but Sonam Pintso Lepcha and Bikash Gurung from Sikkim, were initially denied visas by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center here Tuesday.
The AAI was infuriated at this decision and decided to call off the tour after the Taipei visa officials asked for more documents about the Sikkimese archers, who look like ethnic Chinese.
"First we did not agree to submit other documents because the passport is a document issued by the government of India. How can they deny visas to persons who look different," asked Mukherjee.
India doesn't have diplomatic ties with Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, that acts as the nodal agency for visas, said that they never denied visas to Indian archers.
"We did not deny them visas. We were seeking some more clarification, "Andrew T.H. Cheng, director of the center told IANS.