Two officials of the High Commission of India (HCI) in Islamabad returned from Pakistan on Monday— a week after they were arrested by the police in the neighbouring country’s capital and held for over 10 hours allegedly after the car they were driving hit a pedestrian and injured him.
D Brahma and P Selvadhas, the two officials of the HCI in Islamabad, crossed over to India from Pakistan through the Wagah-Attari border. They were accompanied by two more officials, whom New Delhi asked to come for consultation.
Brahma and Selvadhas went out of the HCI in Islamabad for official work in the morning on June 15 and went missing.
The High Commission immediately took up the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan government.
The reports on the news-portals published from the neighbouring country later claimed that the two officials of the HCI in Islamabad had tried to flee after the BMW car they were driving hit a pedestrian and injured him.
They were caught by some local people and handed over to police, who later found that they were officials of the HCI. They were accused of having fake currencies in their possession too and were tortured while in the custody of police. They were returned to the High Commission of India in Islamabad later
India dismissed all the allegations against them as concocted and accused Pakistan of flouting Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations 1961.
The incident came a fortnight after India expelled two consular officials of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi after they were found to be involved in espionage.
New Delhi earlier on June 4 lodged a complaint with the Pakistan Government after its diplomats in Islamabad were harassed and intimidated by the agents of the neighbouring country’s military spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).