Upping the ante, Pakistan today said it has decided to call back its High Commissioner in India Sohail Mahmood for consultations after repeated incidence of "harassment" of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.
"Our High Commissioner in New Delhi has been asked to come to Islamabad for consultations," Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said.
The Ministry of External Affairs has called it 'normal' for the nighbouring country to call back its High Commissioner in India.
We are looking into issues raised by Pakistan High Commission here, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters.
Noting that our high commission in Islamabad is facing a "litany of issues", he said that "we have taken them up through established mechanism".
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"We want Pakistan to resolve the issues being faced by our staff and ensure their safety," he said.
Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said that the Indian government failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation of Pakistani diplomats, their families and staffers by its intelligence agencies.
India, on the other hand, has alleged similar mistreatment of its diplomats posted in Islamabad. Indian officials, on condition of anonymity, have alleged harassment of Indian diplomats — forcibly stopping high commission vehicles, hampering the work of a residential project, threatening a contractor who maintains the Indian chancery building, reportedThe Hindustan Times.
On Tuesday, Pakistan's Foreign Office had summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh over the alleged harassment of its officials and their families in New Delhi.
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The Pakistan Foreign Ministry claimed that the staff and their families have been facing "harassment, intimidation and outright violence" from Indian state agencies in recent weeks.
Faisal today alleged that this deliberate continuing bullying was not confined to a single isolated event and "continues unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian High Commission here, and also with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest (level)."
He said the Pakistan High Commission shared with the External Affairs Ministry photographs identifying the individuals, who forcibly halted and took pictures of the officers but regrettably no positive action was taken by the Indian side so far.
"The total apathy and failure of the Indian Government to put a halt to these despicable incidents, sparing not even young children, indicates both a lack of capacity to protect foreign diplomats posted in India or a more reprehensible, complicit unwillingness to do so," he said.
He said that under the Vienna Convention, the safety and the security of Pakistani diplomats and their families is the responsibility of the Indian Government.
He claimed that in the latest incident, Indian officials stopped the car of the deputy high commissioner for 40 minutes and harassed the occupants of the vehicle.
(PTI inputs)
