New Delhi: Straining the troubled relationship between the two countries further, India on Thursday asked a Pakistan High Commission staffer to leave the country immediately after he was caught red handed in an espionage attempt.
The spy ring was busted leading to the arrest of two Indians and a Pakistani who was found to be in possession of sensitive defence documents and a map that showed Indian Army movements on the border.
Vikas Swarup, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted that Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit "to convey that (a) Pakistan High Commission staffer has been declared persona non grata for espionage activities".
But this is not the first that a Pakistani spy racket has been busted from within the sensitive confines of the Indian establishment.
Here is a brief backgrounder on Indian and Pakistan High Commision officials who were expelled by their host countries:
*On December 1, 1988, India expelled Brigadier Zaheer Abbasi, then Pakistani military attache. A police team, complete with a hidden video camera, had caught him in the decidedly downmarket Hotel Ranjit, Delhi, handing over Rs 25,000 for classified documents. Abbasi was declared persona not grata within 24 hours.
*In February 2003, Jalil Abbas Jilani, then Chargé d'Affaires at the Pakistan HC, was summoned by the MEA and told to pack his bags because his activities were “not in keeping with his diplomatic status.” Four others in the Pakistan High Commission were expelled along with him.
Just about four hours later, Pakistan’s foreign office — which has traditionally believed in Newton’s third law of motion: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” — announced its tit-for-tat action. But the Pakistani response, as usual, more than matched India’s as apart from expelling Indian Acting High Commissioner Sudhir Vyas, Islamabad expelled four officials in the Indian High Commission there, including a diplomat, First Secretary Rahul Rasgotra.
*In August 2006 India and Pakistan expelled diplomats from each other's countries after Pakistan accused an Indian visa official of "undesirable activities". Pakistani officials said Deepak Kaul, who worked at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was caught "red-handed" with sensitive documents. India denied the allegation and expelled a Pakistani diplomat in return.
Distressed over being handcuffed blindfolded and detained for several hours, Mr Kaul denied that any document was seized from him by Pakistani officials. He, however, made a disclosure about his unlawful detention and misbehaviour with him . Mr Kaul alleged that he was picked up from the Islamabad-Lahore motorway on Saturday morning by a group of persons who pounced on him in bizarre action. He, however, did not reveal the mode of interrogation at the hands of Pakistanis. He said such action showed that Islamabad wanted an excuse to expel him on flimsy grounds.
Between 1989 and 2003, 55 Pakistani diplomats were thrown out of the country.
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