New Delhi: In what is seen as rising Indo-Pak tensions, there are reports of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) abducting two Indian officials posted in High Commission in Islamabad, media reports said.
Quoting top sources in the government, the media said that ISI is behind the abduction of these two officials who have been missing since morning. No contact has yet been established with the officials so far.
Later during the day, Pakistan’s Charge d’affaires to India was summoned by the External Affairs Ministry in connection with the matter.
According to reports, two junior staff members of the Indian High Commission (IHC) in Islamabad went out in a vehicle for official duty at about 8.30 am. The duo, however, did not reach their destination. The Indian Embassy in Islamabad took up the matter with Pakistan’s Foreign Office and a report was sent to New Delhi.
The incident comes just weeks after two Pakistani nationals, Abid Hussain and Muhammad Tahir were caught by the Indian authorities for spying and declared by New Delhi as persona non grata.
After India asked the two officials to leave New Delhi, Pakistani agencies have been harassing Indian officials posted in the Indian Embassy in Islamabad. Most recently, the official vehicle of Gaurav Ahluwalia, the charge d’affaires at the Indian Embassy in Islamabad, was tailed on two occasions. India even launched a strong protest against the act.
Diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Islamabad have hit a new low ever since the Pulwama attack on Indian forces last year. The Indian Air Force (IAF) retaliated with an airstrike at Balakot. In August, after India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir by abrogating Article 370, Pakistan made repeated attempts to internationalise the matter, only to hear from the world community that Kashmir is a bilateral matter between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Pakistan’s attempts to appeal to the Muslim world to unite against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which extends Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, has received a muted response from the Islamic countries.
