Author: PTI
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: August 5, 2006
URL: http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/aug/05pak.htm
Pakistan on Saturday expelled a senior Indian
diplomat after holding him under detention and ordered him to leave the country
within 48 hours.
Deepak Kaul, visa counsellor at the Indian
High Commission in Islamabad, was arrested around 7.30 am IST while he was
on his way to Wagah border by road to receive his family.
He was arrested while having tea at a kiosk
on the Islamabad-Lahore highway, Indian officials in Ismabad said.
"A group of about eight to nine people
pounced on him, handcuffed him and took him to an undisclosed location blindfolded
and kept him there for five hours," they said.
He was later handed over to Indian diplomats
who were summoned to the Foreign Office.
The Indian officials were told that Kaul was
"caught with documents" and has been declared persona non grata
and that he had 48 hours to leave the country. Pakistan officials were not
available for comment.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner
Afra Siab was on Saturday summoned to the External Affairs Ministry in New
Delhi to lodge protest against the expulsion of the Indian diplomat by Pakistan.
Kaul's detention, handcuffing and blindfolding
are in violation of diplomatic norms.
This is perhaps the first time that a diplomat
has been expelled ever since the peace process was launched by the two countries
in January 2004.
Before that, both countries had resorted to
a series of expulsions and counter-expulsions of senior diplomats.
Few months ago, both expelled a staffer each
without making it public. A Pakistan official attached to the Pakistan High
Commission in New Delhi was expelled following which a staffer from the Indian
High Commission in Islamabad was declared persona non grata. Both countries
have not publicised the incident.
Pakistan in the past routinely expelled Indian
diplomats and officials whenever similar action was taken by New Delhi against
Pakistan High Commission staff for allegedly indulging in espionage.
This is the first incident in recent times
that Islamabad expelled an Indian diplomat first. Saturday's expulsion follows
rising tension over allegations that Pakistan-based groups had links with
the Mumbai serial train blasts.
In the wake of the July 11 blasts, the foreign
secretary-level talks scheduled to be held in July in New Delhi to wrap up
the third round of the Composite Dialogue process were also postponed. Pakistan
denied the allegations and offered to cooperate in the probe into the attacks
if India provided evidence.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and his
Pakistan counterpart Riaz Mohammad Khan met in Dhaka this week on the sidelines
of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Standing Committee
meeting and discussed the issue of resuming the dialogue process.
