- High commissioner Ajay Bisaria left Pakistan after worsening ties between India and Pakistan
- India “regretted” Pakistan’s decision in response, urging Islamabad to reconsider
ISLAMABAD: Days after Pakistan’s announcement that it was downgrading diplomatic relations with India and expelling its envoy, Delhi’s high commissioner to Islamabad, Ajay Bisaria left the country, the Indian diplomatic mission spokesman announced Saturday evening.
According to details provided by reliable sources, the high commissioner left for India via the UAE on an Etihad Airlines flight.
Earlier, IHC spokesman Akhlish Singh had said at least thirteen Indian diplomats stationed in Pakistan had left the country for routine holidays.
After a rushed Presidential decree in Indian Parliament on Monday that revoked special status for disputed Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs asked India to withdraw its high commissioner to Pakistan after the country’s National Security Committee (NSC) announced it would downgrade diplomatic relations with its eastern neighbor.
“Pursuant to the decision of the NSC today, the government of India has been told to withdraw its High Commissioner to Pakistan,” the ministry announced on Wednesday. “The Indian government has also been informed that Pakistan will not be sending its High Commissioner-designate to India.”
India “regretted” Pakistan’s decision in response, urging Islamabad to reconsider it “so that normal channels for diplomatic communications are preserved.”
The last few days have witnessed an escalation of tensions between the two South Asian nuclear neighbors as Indian-administered Kashmir remains under a security lockdown. The region is also facing a communications blackout, cutting off its residents from the rest of the world.
The UN secretary-general has urged all stakeholders to exercise maximum restraint amid mounting tensions in the region with media reports suggesting Indian authorities used undue force on 10,000 protesters and The New York Times reporting night-time raids that had rounded up hundreds of Kashmiri protesters.
“The secretary-general calls on all parties to refrain from taking steps that could affect the status of Jammu and Kashmir,” said a UN spokesman in a recent statement.