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| Delhi rejects Islamabad's allegations against RAW | | Pak imposes restrictions on Indian diplomats | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI, AUG. 19: Pakistan, in a tit-for-tat move, has imposed restrictions on the movement of the Indian diplomats posted at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. Indian diplomats have been asked not to move outside the limits of Islamabad.
Pakistan's English daily, The News, quoted official sources as saying: "Pakistan is constrained to take the matching action since India had been engaged in water-testing game with Pakistan and Pakistan would like to make it clear to them that the reciprocity would be buzz word in dealing with Pakistan". Islamabad's tit-for-tat move came after New Delhi had imposed restrictions on Pakistani diplomats posted at the Delhi-based Pakistan High Commission.
According to a message from Islamabad, Pakistan is in the process of appointing new diplomats in New Delhi to replace those who had completed or are yet to complete their tenure. Pakistan's political counsellor in Washington mission, Syed Zulfikar Ali Gardezi, has been transferred to New Delhi's High Commission, where Muazzam Ali and his wife Leena Muazzam, both counsellors, have been transferred to the headquarters. Leena will be replaced with SAARC Desk Director at Foreign Office, Riffat Masood.
Meanwhile, the government of India has taken strong exception to the machinations of Pakistan's official agencies of spreading "false" propaganda against the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). The RAW, it was officially declared, had no role in the August 14 atack on Pakistan's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. What has irked New Delhi is that despite the government of India's strong denial of the allegations, Islamabad had encouraged a section of the media to blame the Indian intelligence for the bomb atack in Colombo.
The News quoted unnamed officials as saying that India engineered the August 14 attack on Pakistan's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Bashri Wali Mohammed, in a bid to sour the burgeoning military and economic ties between Islamabad and Colombo. The Pakistani publication said that the RAW, India's external intelligence agency, carried out the attack on that killed, among others, the four Sri Lankan bodyguards of the diplomat. The envoy escaped unhurt. India has condemned the attack on the Pakistani diplomat that took place in the heart of Colombo when he was returning home after attending his country's Independence Day celebrations at the High Commission.
Wali Mohammed, a former chief of Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau, had completed his tenure in Sri Lanka and is set to return home Monday. He was a retired colonel of the Pakistan Army. News reports say the attack coincided with the landing of two shiploads of weapons for the Sri Lankan armed forces, meant to fight the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). According to the Pakistani officials, the High Commissioner played a pivotal role in strengthening relations between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
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