Identities of Eight Indian High Commission Officials Revealed

Islamabad: The identity of eight Indian High Commission officials who were outed on charges of leak was made public on Wednesday, a report in the Pakistani daily DAWN said.

The officials whose identities have been revealed are Rajesh Kumar Agnihotri (posted as commercial counsellor); Balbir Singh (posted as first secretary, press and culture); Anurag Singh (working as first secretary, commercial), Amardeep Singh Bhatti (visa attache); Dhar­medra, Vijay Kumar Verma and Madhavan Nanda Kumar (visa assistants); and Jayabalan Senthil (assistant, personnel welfare office).

According to DAWN, the media leak claims that the officials were working either for RAW or for the Indian Intelligence Bureau.

However, the media leak has not been confirmed by any Foreign Office official.

Posting of undercover officers is a routine practice in inter-state relations.

As per the information leaked to the media, the revealed Indian officials, were, however, found to be involved in subversive activities, including attempts to disrupt the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and create fear and chaos in the country.

They are also alleged to be building a network of informants within Pakistan and fabricating evidence for tarnishing the country’s image abroad.

The DAWN also states that it is expected that these agents would be declared persona non-grata by Pakistani authorities in the coming days or India would withdraw them.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Indian external affairs ministry, Vikas Swarup, while responding to media queries in New Delhi, declined to comment on the future of the agents whose identities had been exposed.

The leak that took the confrontation between the two countries to a new peak came after Pakistan was forced to pull out six of its officers and staff posted at the high commission in New Delhi because of Indian allegations that four diplomats were working for Pakistani intelligence services.

India last week sparked the latest controversy in its strained ties with Pakistan when it detained one of the Pakistani mission’s staffers, Mehmood Akhtar, and coerced him to name four of the diplomats as spies.

The recorded statement of Akhtar, who was later dismissed from India, revealed that he was compromising the security of Pakistani personnel at the Delhi mission.