NEW DELHI – The Ministry of External Affairs of India has responded to thenews of Pakistan calling back its Ambassador in New Delhi to Islamabd.
Indian MEA spokesperson has said on Thursday that Pakistan calling back itsAmbassadorlink>inIndia Sohail Mahmood was a routine affair.
“I am surprised why is this question being raised. It is not a recall. Hehas been called back for consultations. It is very normal and routine innature,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.
On the allegations of “repeated incidence of harassment” of its diplomaticstaff in New Delhi by Pakistan, Kumar said that he would not like tocomment on it in the media and the matter will be taken up throughdiplomatic channels.
Pakistan on Thursday called back its High Commissioner in India for’consultations’. Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said that theIndian government had “failed to take notice of the increasing incidents ofintimidation of Pakistani diplomats”, their families and staffers by itsintelligence agencies.
“Our High Commissioner in New Delhi has been asked to come to Islamabad forconsultations,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Foreign Office had summoned India’s Deputy HighCommissioner JP Singh over the alleged harassment of its officials andtheir families in New Delhi.
The Pakistan Foreign Ministry claimed that the staff and their familieshave been facing “harassment, intimidation and outright violence” fromIndian state agencies in recent weeks.
Faisal also alleged that this deliberate continuing bullying was notconfined to a single isolated event and “continues unabated despiterepeated official protests lodged with the Indian High Commission here andalso with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest (level),”*PTI* reported.
He said the Pakistan High Commission had shared with the External AffairsMinistry photographs identifying the individuals, who forcibly halted andtook pictures of the officers but “regrettably no positive action” wastaken by the Indian side so far.
“The total apathy and failure of the Indian government to put a halt tothese despicable incidents, sparing not even young children, indicates botha lack of capacity to protect foreign diplomats posted in India or a morereprehensible, complicit unwillingness to do so,” he said.
Faisal added that under the Vienna Convention, the safety and the securityof Pakistani diplomats and their families is the responsibility of theIndian government.
He further claimed that in the latest incident, Indian officials stoppedthe car of the deputy high commissioner for 40 minutes and harassed theoccupants of the vehicle.