India-Pakistan bilateral relations plummeted further on Thursday with Pakistan formally naming eight Islamabad-based Indian diplomats as alleged spies. India refuted the allegation, terming it an “after thought” to the expulsion of a Pakistan High Commission staffer from New Delhi.
The Ministry of External Affairs said it would take a “considered decision” on the move and that “this kind of a downward spiral does not do good to either side.”
At the weekly press conference, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup termed the allegations against the staffers “baseless and unsubstantiated” and added the “Government will take a considered decision,” consi- dering the overall situation.
Mr. Swarup said the manner in which names and photos of the diplomatic staff, four of them holders of diplomatic passports, had been published was against basic practice of diplomatic courtesy.
“Moreover, the allegations against Indian officials are prejudicial to their safety and security. We expect the Government of Pakistan to take all necessary steps to ensure the security and safety not only of these eight diplomats and officials but of all the other members of the High Commission and their families while they are in Pakistan,” he observed.
Mr. Swarup said the Indian officials, falsely implicated, were working in the fields of promoting people-to-people, trade and economic contacts between the two countries and cautioned that “Pakistan’s allegation against them has the potential to adversely affect the corresponding activity of the High Commission.”
On Wednesday Pakistan recalled six of its staff including four diplomats from the Indian mission saying it had become impossible for officials to work in this “vitiated” atmosphere as the Indian government was “threatening and blackmailing” their diplomats.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of Pakistan accused Indian state intelligence agencies of being involved in promoting terrorist and subversive activities to destabilise Pakistan for quite some time and said the diplomatic mission was being used for its “nefarious designs.”
“As you are aware that a number of Indian diplomats and staff belonging to the Indian intelligence agencies RAW and IB have been found to be involved in coordinating terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistan under the garb of diplomatic assignments…,” a MoFA spokesperson said.
