India and Pakistan have “mutually agreed” to resolve concerns over the treatment of each other’s diplomats, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday. The two countries agreed to treat diplomats in line with a 1992 pact they had signed on the code of conduct towards consular staff, ANI reported.
Over the past three weeks, India and Pakistan have traded allegations of harassment of their diplomatic staff at their respective High Commissions in Islamabad and New Delhi. Pakistan had summoned its High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood on March 15 to “consult” him on the reports.
Mahmood returned on March 22, and said he wanted to sort out the matter of alleged harassment of diplomats “as soon as possible” as it affected relations between the two countries. On the same day, India had sent an unsigned diplomatic correspondence to Islamabad, seeking an investigation into the matter.
On March 13, the Pakistan High Commission had circulated a video that purportedly showed a slow-moving car blocking one of its diplomats’ vehicles in New Delhi. The High Commission claimed that Indian security services were behind the incident.
Indian authorities then claimed that High Commissioner JP Singh’s doorbell was rung at 3 am in Islamabad. A few days later, the doorbell of Pakistani Deputy High Commissioner Syed Haider Shah in Delhi was also allegedly rung at 3 am.
Indian officials had claimed that the hostilities began after the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence raided a residential complex being built for Indian diplomats in Islamabad on February 16.
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