New Delhi: The increasing cases of espionage activities by Pakistan and harassment of Indian officials in Pakistan has forced India to reduce the staff strength in the Pakistan High Commission by 50 per cent and would reciprocally reduce its own presence in Islamabad to the same proportion.
The decision is to be implemented in seven days.
The development comes after two Indian High Commission officials in Islamabad were abducted and tortured by Pakistani security agencies.
The MEA in a statement recalled the two Pakistan officials who were caught for spying and expelled on 31 May 2020.
“They have been engaged in acts of espionage and maintained dealings with terrorist organisations. The activities of the two officials caught red-handed and expelled on 31 May, 2020, was one example in that regard,” according to a ministry statement.
“The recent abduction at gunpoint of two Indian officials and their severe ill-treatment underlines the extent to which Pakistan has gone in that direction. These officials who have returned to India on 22 June, 2020 have provided graphic details of the barbaric treatment they experienced at the hands of Pakistani agencies,” the MEA has informed.
Pakistan has been time and again violating the Vienna Convention and is not in conformity with the bilateral agreements on the treatment of diplomatic and consular officials, the MEA said.
