India Thursday expressed its willingness to grant long-term visas to Pakistani Hindus to stay in this country if they apply properly even as a large number of the community have been arriving in India from the neighboring country since the start of this month.

"So far, no one has applied for long-term visa. Basically, we have norms for the long-term visa. If they apply under them, they will get it," Indian Home Secretary R.K. Singh said in the national capital.

More than 250 Pakistani Hindus have arrived in India on a pilgrimage in the past two to three weeks and many they have reportedly expressed their desire to stay on in this country, despite having signed an undertaking in Islamabad that they would not seek asylum in New Delhi.

India claims that Pakistani Hindus have been facing persecution and some were forcefully converted into Islam in Pakistan.

"As far as we know, the families have come on a pilgrimage. So far, no family that is based in Pakistan has approached us for asylum," India's Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur told the media this week.

There are 2.7 million Hindus living in a majority-Muslim population of 180 million in Pakistan. They hail from families which chose to stay on during 1947 partition of the subcontinent at the end of the British rule.