ISLAMABAD, 3 July 2005 — Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with India over the “harassment” being meted out to its diplomats in New Delhi by the Indian secret agencies, sources said.
Indian security agencies had stopped harassing Pakistani diplomats after the commencement of the ongoing peace process in January 2004 but surprisingly, they have resorted again to this course three months ago, the diplomatic sources said.
Pakistan has raised this issue with India through the diplomatic channels with a warning that it could harm the ongoing peace process and vitiates the prevailing atmosphere of goodwill in the region, the sources said.
They said that the issue would also be discussed with India at the higher government level in next few days with a strong protest aimed at impressing upon the Indian government to reign in its intelligence agencies.
Sources said that for the last three months, the vehicles of Indian security agencies chasing the Pakistani diplomats have increased substantially. Whenever, Pakistani diplomats ask for permission to move out of New Delhi they were not obliged and their requests were turned down.
All this and similar other incidents of harassment were creating a sense of anxiety among the Pakistani diplomats who were left with no other option but to complain back home for some sort of redressal.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s top defense and security officials are examining the “Indian roadmap” of troops’ withdrawal from Siachen glacier but official circles here see no chance of earlier resolution to the dispute owing to New Delhi’s insistence on authentication of positions currently held by the troops of two states, sources said.
In accordance with the road map provided by India to Pakistan, the Indian troops could be withdrawn to the positions held by the two sides prior to the Simla accord, sources said.
However, at the same time Indians have attached a condition of authentication of positions that the troops of two states were currently holding, something that was unacceptable to Pakistan, said sources.
“Pakistan is ready for troops’ withdrawal from Siachen glacier only if India drops its insistence on the authentication of current positions being held by the Pakistani and Indian troops,” sources said.
“Unless and until that is done, Islamabad is not ready to accept any roadmap for the troops’ withdrawal from the world’s highest battleground,” he said.
Diplomatic sources, however, said that despite the clear position adopted by Pakistan, the Indian road map on Siachen was being studied by the senior defense officials as efforts were underway through diplomatic channels to prevail upon India for softening its stance on the military positions’ authentication in Siachen area.
