 | « Back to article | Print this article |
India has asked the Pakistani Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi Jaleel Abbas Gilani to leave the country within 48 hours, official sources said on Saturday.
"We have hard evidence to show that what he (Gilani) was doing is incompatible with diplomatic norms," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters in Delhi.
India has also sought the recall of four officials of the Pakistan high commission, he said. They are Habibur Rehman, Aftab Ahmed, Abdul Razak and Mohd Nazir, he said adding they are not diplomats.
The MEA conveyed this decision to Sayed-ibne Abbas, councillor in the Pakistani high commission, the spokesman said.
The families of the diplomat and the officials have been given seven days' times to leave the country, he said.
Sarna said the MEA acted on the basis of a Union home ministry report giving details of the activities of Jilani and the other staffers.
The government action comes two days after two arrested Hurriyart Conference activists alleged that Gilani funded separatists in Jammu and Kashmir.
One of the activists, chief of the Muslim Khawateen Markaz Anjum Zamrooda Habib, on Thursday confessed before POTA judge S N Dhingra that Rs 307,000 recovered from her was handed over to her by the Pakistani high commission to be passed on to Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat as a 'nazrana' (gift).
Police recovered Rs 200,000 from the Hurriyat's office in Delhi and arrested its spokesman Shabir Ahmed Dar after Habib alleged that he was also receiving money from the Pakistani high commission.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani high commission spokesperson termed India's decision to expel its Charge d'Affaires in Delhi and four others as 'very regrettable'.
The two countries had reduced their mission staff strength by half to 55 as one of the steps taken after the December 13 terror attack on Parliament.
Recently, India expelled two members of the Pakistani high commission on charges of spying, prompting Islamabad to expel three Indian diplomats and a staffer.