For years, pots containing ashes of deceased Hindus have been kept in a catalogue room, inside the library at the Gujjar Hindu Community Burial and Cremation Ground in Karachi, to be immersed in the holy Ganges in India.

But the Pakistan government has not yet granted visas for their transit to India.

Pakistan Hindu Council president Hari Motwani said that his organization has repeatedly contacted the Pakistani government to grant visas to sons and daughters of the late Hindus whose ashes are kept here, but to no avail. "Several Sindhi Hindus have been waiting for many years," the Daily Times quoted him as saying.

"When people started putting the ashes here, we requested them to take them away as soon as possible, but it is very difficult for them to get visas to go to India," said Murad Bukhsh, an employee of the cremation ground.