India and Pakistan launch tit-for-tat diplomat expulsions

Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan expelled each other’s top diplomats today, virtually slamming the door on hopes for a dialogue to settle the long-standing Kashmir dispute.

India ordered the acting head of the Pakistani diplomatic mission in New Delhi to leave the country within 48 hours. Hours later Pakistan reciprocated, expelling the acting Indian high commissioner in Islamabad.

The expulsions mark an increase in tensions between the South Asian rivals, who side-stepped war last year following intense international diplomatic efforts.

The two hostile neighbours have increased their hostile rhetoric and missile tests in recent weeks.

Both countries expelled embassy officials last month and have been making tit-for-tat claims of superior military readiness, although they have scaled back troops along their frontier.

Today New Delhi ordered out acting Pakistani High Commissioner Jalil Abbas Jilani and four other officials at the diplomatic mission, said Navtej Sarna, a spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

The expulsion comes one day after India accused Jilani of funnelling money to separatists in Kashmir.

Pakistan quickly retaliated by ordering Sudhir Vyas, the acting Indian high commissioner, and four other commission officials to leave the country by Monday.

Today Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the expulsions were an attempt by India to derail any prospects of improved relations.

“We condemn this move and India has proved that it does not want peace in the region,” Ahmed said.

Yesterday police in New Delhi accused Jilani, the acting Pakistan high commissioner, of giving cash to two separatist politicians for subversive activities in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Jilani denied the accusations. He said that he had been harassed by Indian intelligence officials for the last month and had filed complaints with the Indian government.

“They wanted to make it impossible to allow normal diplomatic relations to continue,” Jilani said.

“We feel that this is part of the vicious propaganda campaign that India has launched to malign Pakistan.”

New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of backing Islamic militants who cross over from Pakistan to battle for the independence of India’s only Muslim majority state, Jammu-Kashmir, or its merger with Pakistan. Islamabad says it supports their cause, but denies giving the militants material aid.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. Two of those have been over disputed Kashmir and the current 12-year insurgency has claimed more than 61,000 lives. Kashmir is divided into Indian and Pakistani sectors, but both countries claim the Himalayan region in its entirety.

India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today accused Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, of using the territories of neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh to pursue its anti-India agenda.

“For us, the most disconcerting aspect of terrorism is that it is sponsored, supported and funded by Pakistan as a matter of state policy,” Press Trust of India quoted Vajpayee as saying at a political conference in New Delhi.

He added: “The Pakistani establishment doesn’t appear to be interested in establishing tension-free and good neighbourly relations with India.”

G. Parthasarthy, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, described the government’s decision as appropriate.

“(Pakistani President) General Pervez Musharraf has made it clear he does not want trade relations with India. He does not want economic relations with India. All that he wants to do is to beat the drum about Kashmir and promote jihad (religious war) here,” Parthasarthy said.

A Pakistani foreign ministry statement today named the other Indian officials being expelled as first secretary Rahul Rasgotra and embassy staff M R Balu, Rambir Singh and Surinder Raj Anand.

Indian foreign ministry spokesman Sarna told reporters that the other four Pakistan High Commission officials being expelled were Habibur Rehman, Aftab Ahmed, Abdul Razak and Mohammad Nazir. He said the four were not diplomats.

He said the four were found to be indulging in activities incompatible with their official status – often a euphemism for spying.