North Korea has accused Pakistan of violating the Vienna Convention afterthe Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police raided its embassy inIslamabad earlier this week.
In an official letter to the Inspector General (IG) ICT Police, MuhammadAhsan Younas, the North Korean Embassy in Islamabad said that sevenofficials of Shalimar Police Station entered the premises of the embassywithout any permission on 7 March.
Despite repeated reminders by the staff members that the embassy is thesovereign territory of the country under the Vienna Convention, the policeofficers ignored the requests and broke into the embassy forcefully.
The ICT Police officials warned the staff of dire consequences and as aresult, the staff allowed the police officers to search the embassy. Theofficers not only searched the embassy but also damaged the building.
While expressing serious concerns over the incident, the North KoreanEmbassy has also requested the IG ICT Police and other concernedinstitutions, including Foreign Affairs Division, to independentlyinvestigate the incident to prevent a similar situation in the future.What Actually Happened?
A source within Shalimar Police Station, seeking anonymity, disclosed thatthe police received a tipoff about the presence of a large quantity ofliquor in the North Korean Embassy and raided it to confiscate the liquor.
Read Top Stories
Meanwhile, IG Islamabad has constituted a high-level investigationcommittee headed by SSP Investigation to probe the incident and stronglydirected the committee to give severe punishment to the officers involvedin violating the Vienna Convention.Official Apology
Islamabad Police has admitted that its officers broke into the North KoreanEmbassy earlier this week to confiscate illegal items from the premises ofthe embassy and apologized for breaching the Vienna Convention.
Interior Ministry has also apologized to the North Korean Embassy and saidthat the incident occurred as a result of a misunderstanding between theICT Police and its informers.
On the other hand, the Foreign Affairs Division has informed ICT Policethat its employees have no authority to raid the embassy of a country underany circumstances and advised the department to consult the Foreign Officebefore planning such activities in the future to avoid diplomaticembarrassment.link
