Two officials of the High Commission of India in Islamabad missing

Two officials of the High Commission of India in Islamabad went missing on Monday.

The officials went out of the premises of the High Commission of India in Islamabad for official work in the morning and have been reportedly missing since. The High Commission took up the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan Government, sources in New Delhi said.

The incident comes 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.

Read: Pakistan summons senior Indian diplomat over expulsion of 2 High Commission officials on espionage charges

New Delhi on June 4 lodged a complaint with the Pakistan Government after its diplomats in Islamabad were harassed by the agents of the neighbouring country’s military spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

New Delhi lodged the complaint after the ISI agents on bikes aggressively followed the official car of India’s acting envoy to Pakistan, Gaurav Ahluwalia, on the streets of Islamabad. The ISI agents also surrounded the residential complex of the officials of the High Commission of India in the diplomatic enclave of the capital of Pakistan – apparently in a bid to intimidate them, sources said in New Delhi.

The harassment of the India’s diplomats and consular officials in Pakistan appeared to be retaliation by the ISI after New Delhi expelled its two undercover agents.

Abid Hussain and Muhammad Tahir, both ISI agents, had been living in New Delhi under the guise of consular officials of the High Commission of Pakistan in the capital of India. India had on May 31 declared both Hussain and Tahir as “Persona Non Grata” and asked Pakistan to withdraw them from India within 24 hours. They had left New Delhi early in the morning on June 1 and crossed over to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah border between India and its western neighbour in the evening.