A day after Islamabad accused New Delhi of harassing its diplomats and their families in India and threatened to pull them out if the intimidation did not stop, officials told The Times of India that the hostilities began with the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence’s raid on a residential complex under construction for Indian diplomats in Islamabad on February 16. The Pakistani agency reportedly disconnected power and water supply.
High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria had intimated Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua about “multiple acts of hooliganism” against Indian staff and property. However, the power supply was reportedly not restored for over two weeks.
Pakistan has issued a démarche to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, Dawn reported on Saturday. “It is becoming difficult for the Pakistani diplomats posted in India to keep their families with them due to increase in harassment incidents,” the daily quoted an unidentified official as saying.
The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi wrote four diplomatic notes to the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, mentioning 18 alleged incidents of harassment of diplomats, their family members and Indian workers in the diplomatic mission, The Indian Express reported. On March 8, two cars allegedly followed the vehicle carrying the children of Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner. The driver was reportedly forced to step out of the vehicle and was intimidated.
A number of other diplomatic vehicles have also been stopped and searched, Dawn reported. The members of Pakistan’s diplomatic staff have allegedly been abused in public and a number of these vehicles have been involved in accidents.
Meanwhile, unidentified diplomats told The Indian Express that Pakistani agencies had recently stopped Bisaria’s car in the middle of a busy road to prevent him from attending a lunch the Bohra community had hosted in Karachi. Bisaria was in Karachi to attend a literature festival.
The relations between the two countries have been tense since an increase in alleged ceasefire violations by Pakistan over the past few months.
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