ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday protested to India after arresting a man suspected of being an Indian spy, sparking a new diplomatic tiff between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Islamabad officials say authorities have arrested an Indian intelligence officer for his involvement in “subversive activities” in Pakistan and have protested to India’s envoy over the case.

Two Pakistani security officials said the man was apprehended in the southwestern Baluchistan province. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record.

He was arrested during a raid in the southwestern province, Pakistani media reports said quoting local security officials, calling him an agent with India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence agency.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry statement later described the incident as the “illegal entry into Pakistan by a RAW officer and his involvement in subversive activities in Balochistan and Karachi.”

The Foreign Ministry, it said, summoned the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad to lodge a protest over the Indian officer’s illegal entry into Pakistan.

The Indian envoy had been summoned by the foreign secretary so that he could convey his “protest and deep concern.”

The ministry says he was involved in violence in Baluchistan province and the city of Karachi.

The arrest was announced months after India said militants from Pakistan were linked to a January assault on an air base in India that killed seven Indian soldiers.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least developed province, has been battling a years-long separatist insurgency that the army has repeatedly claimed is “terrorism” promoted by states hostile to Pakistan such as India. Karachi, a city of 20 million and Pakistan’s economic hub, is frequently hit by religious, political and ethnic violence.