Indo-Pak ties plunge to new depth
India braced yesterday for a probable tit-for-tat response from Pakistan for its expulsion of four members of the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi, as already-strained diplomatic ties between the nuclear rivals plunged even further.
The four were Wednesday given 48 hours to leave India because they were "indulging in activities incompatible with their diplomatic status" -- a euphemism for spying, an official from the Indian foreign ministry said.
Those given their marching orders were high-ranking Pakistani diplomat Mansoor Saeed Sheikh, First Secretary Mian Mohammad Esif and two embassy staffers.
Staff in the respective high commissions of the two countries had already been reduced by 50 per cent to about 55, according to the Indian press yesterday, following an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 by gunmen New Delhi claims were sponsored by Islamabad.
The incident, which left 15 people including five attackers dead, galvanised India into sending hundreds of thousands of troops to its borders, snapping rail, air and road links with its neighbour and recalling dozens of diplomatic staff, including its high commissioner.
Pakistan matched each punitive step and fears of war began to escalate, with the massacre by Islamic militants in Indian Kashmir last May of Indian soldiers and their families almost providing the spark.
An intensive international diplomatic flurry managed to pull the rivals back from the brink and following a commitment by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to rein in the militants, India announced it would reopen its air space to Pakistani planes and restock its high commission in Islamabad.
Almost seven months later, however, Pakistan has yet to take up the airspace offer while India has yet to send the veteran diplomat it identified as its new high commissioner in Islamabad, Harsh Bhasin, across the border; although both sides have pulled back their troops.
On Wednesday, the Indian government, citing ongoing bloody assaults in Indian Kashmir, accused Pakistan of not only reneging on its promise to rein in militants but of actively helping rebels regroup in the Pakistan zone of the disputed state.
The expulsion orders were served Wednesday evening on Pakistan's chief diplomat in New Delhi, Jalil Abbas Jilani, who described them as "harsh".
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