Pakistan calls back its envoy in India for consultations over ‘harassment’

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Upping the ante, Pakistan on Thursday called back its High Commissioner in India Sohail Mahmood for consultations after repeated incidence of “harassment” of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi. Addressing weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr. Muhammad Faisal said that the Indian government failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation of Pakistani diplomats, their families and staffers by its intelligence agencies. He said that minorities especially Muslims were also being mistreated in India. To a question, the spokesperson lauded announcement of head money by the United States on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists Mullah Fazlullah and others and added that there is need to do more in this regard. On Tuesday, the foreign office had summoned India’s Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh over the alleged harassment of its officials and their families in New Delhi. The foreign ministry had claimed that the staff and their families have been facing “harassment, intimidation and outright violence” from Indian state agencies in recent weeks. Dr Faisal alleged that this deliberate continuing bullying was not confined to a single isolated event and “continues unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian High Commission here, and also with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest (level).” On March 9, the car of the Naval Adviser was aggressively chased. On the same day, Counselor Political was forcibly evicted from a cab and harassed by unknown persons, who used abusive language, threatened him and filmed the whole incident with impunity. On March 12, the technicians working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi were threatened and stopped from working. “The same evening our First Secretary was aggressively followed when he left work for his residence,” the statement said. “On March 13, the car carrying the school-going children of our Counselor, who were returning from school, was followed by unknown persons on cars and motorcycles harassed, intimidated and their vehicle was blocked. For psychological intimidation, videos and photographs of the children were constantly made for 40 minutes, leaving the children extremely traumatized. They were followed upto their residence.” Additionally, the drivers of the High Commission were forcibly halted and their mobile phones switched off to prevent them from contacting anyone. The statement said all these incidents continued unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest level, providing specific details of the culprit’s vehicles.