New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan today cried foul after 2 of its officials posted in its High Commission in New Delhi were caught involved in spying and ordered to leave the country immediately.
Pakistan has summoned a senior Indian diplomat over India’s decision to expel two officials of its High Commission in New Delhi.
India had issued a statement yesterday after the two officials were apprehended by the Indian law enforcement authorities for indulging in espionage activities.
“The Government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within twenty four hours,” an official statement by the Ministry of External Affairs read.
After the two ‘Visa Assistants’ were caught red-handed yesterday, Pakistan’s Charge de Affaires was issued a demarche in which a strong protest was lodged with regard to the activities of these officials of the High Commission of Pakistan against India’s national security.
The MEA said that Pakistan’s Cd’A (Charge de Affaires) was asked to ensure that no member of its diplomatic mission should indulge in activities inimical to India or behave in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status.
This is not the first time that Pakistani High Commission officials and other staffers have been found involved in spying and other anti-India activities. In one such case over a decade back, an officer as senior as Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan was found involved in providing hawala money to Kashmiri separatists. He was expelled immediately. Later, the Pakistani government rewarded the officer, Jalil Abbas Jilani, and made him the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan in 2012.
