The tit for tat expulsion of diplomats has triggered a new round of diplomatic hostility between India and Pakistan in a sign of heightening tension between the two nuclear-armed nations.
Pakistan has asked India to reduce its diplomatic staff in Islamabad to half in retaliation to the expulsion of Pakistani diplomatic staff from New Delhi. Both countries have accused each other of engaging in espionage.
The latest row erupted after Indian police arrested two Pakistani diplomats earlier this month to which Pakistan responded by detaining two Indian High Commission officials in Islamabad on the charge of injuring a pedestrian in a car accident.
Such tit for tat actions are quite common between the two hostile neighbors, but the current crisis has assumed greater seriousness given the escalation along the Line of Control dividing the two sides of the disputed state of Kashmir. On Tuesday, India’s foreign ministry conveyed its government’s decision to the Pakistani chargé d’affaires regarding reducing Pakistan’s diplomatic footprint.
Pakistan immediately reciprocated the Indian action. A spokesman of Pakistan’s foreign ministry accused Indian High Commission officials of participating in “illegal activities.”
Pakistan currently has 83 officers and staffers in Delhi, while the number of personnel posted at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad is around 100.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries had already been downgraded in February last year, by withdrawing their high commissioners after the Indian air force incursion into Pakistani territory– the first since the 1971 war. The next day, Pakistan downed an Indian fighter jet.
The diplomatic presence in each other’s capitals has now been reduced to a bare minimum after the latest development. In 1992, the two countries agreed to follow a code of conduct meant to ensure the “smooth and unhindered functioning of their diplomatic and consular officials in conformity with recognized norms of international law and practice.” But the protocol has never been adhered to.
The mounting tension has intensified a war of words between New Delhi and Islamabad. Both sides accuse each other of border escalation. There have not been any official level contacts between the two countries. Even bilateral trade has stopped.
Delhi’s unilateral action in August last year, annexing Indian-administered Kashmir has brought the relations between the two neighbors to a new low. In the process, it united Kashmiris as never before in challenging the revocation.
Indian actions have carried serious ramifications for the region with the danger of the conflict turning into a wider conflagration. By removing the so-called instrument of accession, India has further complicated the Kashmir dispute. It is now back to its pre-1948 situation, and the Indian-administered territory has been under a virtual state of lockdown for the past year.
Despite their heavy presence, Indian forces have not been able to control the situation. Scores of Kashmiris have been killed as the insurgency has spread. Reports of rampant human rights violations by Indian security forces have drawn criticism from the international community.
Meanwhile, clashes along the LoC have intensified with mounting casualties on both sides. While India accused Pakistan of sending infiltrators into Delhi-administered Kashmir, Pakistan claimed to have shot down several spy drones inside its territory.
The latest standoff between Indian and Chinese forces in strategically located Ladakh region also had an impact on relations between New Delhi and Islamabad. Recently declared a federal territory by Indian authorities separating it from the disputed state of Kashmir, Ladakh lies at the confluence of three nuclear states: India, China and Pakistan.
It is the area where physical military collusion among these countries can take place, which makes it a potential flashpoint. Pakistani officials see the latest escalation in Ladakh as part of an Indian move to divert international attention away from the Kashmir issue.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that India was plotting an attack on Pakistan to divert attention from the recent clash between India and China that killed at least 20 Indian soldiers. He said that India, after being beaten and “embarrassed” by China in the Himalayan incident, was trying to “find excuses for a false flag operation” against Pakistan. He warned that Pakistan would respond with full force if India embarked on any “misadventure.”
And so it is, that the perpetually tense ties between these nuclear-armed South Asian nations have gone from one low to another without showing any signs of recovery.
