Pakistan gets even with India

Pakistan yesterday expelled four members of the Indian High Commission in an expected tit-for-tat response to New Delhi's expulsion of four Pakistani diplomats a day earlier, sending diplomatic relations between the nuclear enemies to a new low.

"The acting Indian High Commissioner was told today that all four officials must leave Pakistan within 48 hours," foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told AFP.

Counsellor Vipin Handa, Second Secretary RP, Singh, attaché

Vakil Ramdas and embassy staffer PH Sundaram had engaged in "activities that were incompatible with their status as members of the diplomatic mission," Khan added, using terms normally associated with spying.

India's mission slammed the allegations as false.

"These allegations are absolutely untrue. This is a retaliatory act," a high commission official told AFP, asking not to be named.

The four officials have been declared person non grata and their families have been given a week to leave.

Yesterday's expulsion orders are a replica of those served on Pakistan's mission in New Delhi on Wednesday.

India expelled two Pakistani diplomats and two Pakistani embassy staffers for "activities incompatible with their status" and gave them 48 hours to leave.

High-ranking Pakistani diplomat Mansoor Saeed Sheikh, First Secretary Mian Mohammad Esif and the two staffers were due to leave India tomorrow, an official in New Delhi said.

Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna called the expulsions a "simple act of retaliation" and branded the charges "entirely baseless and false."

Diplomatic ties have been strained between the nuclear capable neighbours over the past fortnight since Pakistan formally complained to Indian authorities that all its diplomats in New Delhi were being harassed by Indian authorities.

The complaint was lodged on January 7. On the weekend India went public with its own complaints, alleging that its acting high commissioner, charge d'affaires Sudhir Vyas had been stopped several times in his car on Saturday.

Pakistan said India had made up the complaint to cover up for its own harassment of Pakistani officials.

India and Pakistan frequently allege harassment of their diplomats, but the incidents usually involve low-level officials.

Pakistan Thursday also ordered the number of staff numbers at the Indian mission to be reduced by four to 21.

"There will be no replacements now," as staff numbers were already less than the sanctioned level, Indian high commission spokesman Rahul Rasgotra told AFP.

India cut down the level and size of its diplomatic representation in Islamabad in December 2001 as part of stringent measures against Pakistan following a deadly assault on its parliament. New Delhi blamed the attack on two anti-India Kashmiri militant groups it said were backed by Pakistan.

Islamabad took reciprocal steps with its mission in New Delhi.