Diplomats being harassed in India, alleges Pakistan, threatens pullout of officials

Targeting New Delhi again, Pakistan has accused India of harassing diplomats and their families living in the country. Pakistan-based publication Dawn quoted diplomatic sources as saying that the matter was taken up with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

According to the report, Islamabad has warned that it will pull out its diplomats and their families if the "intimidation" is not put to an end.

The diplomatic source was further quoted as claiming that children of Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner were stopped and harassed while they were going to school. He further alleged that members of diplomatic were being abused during their movement in public.

A senior diplomat from Pakistan was also harassed while moving in the national capital, said the report. Besides, the report also cited a number of alleged accidents of vehicles belonging to the Pakistani High Commission.

The report just a day after India lashed out at Pakistan at United Nations for playing the victim card after providing safe haven to terrorists like 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and 26/11 perpetrator Hafiz Saeed, the chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

“It is extraordinary that the state which protected Osama Bin Laden and sheltered Mullah Omar should have the gumption to play the victim,” said India's Second Secretary Mini Devi Kumam while responding to Pakistan's accusations of human rights violations at 37th session of UN Human Rights Council. 

"In gross violation of UN Security Council resolution 1267, the UN designated terrorists like Hafiz Mohammed Saeed are freely operating with State support, and the UN designated entities are being politically mainstreamed in Pakistan," added Kumam.

Saeed, the mastermind of 2008 Mumbai attacks, is the founder of banned terrorists organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Following his release from house arrest by a Pakistan court last year, there was widespread global outcry. Saeed went on to launch his political party, and announced his decision to contest polls in Pakistan.