ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Tuesday summoned a senior Indian diplomat to protest over continued harassment of Pakistani diplomats and their families in New Delhi and accused Indian authorities of being complicit in the controversial incidents.

“The total apathy and failure of the Indian government to put a halt to these despicable incidents, sparing not even young children, indicates both a lack of capacity to protect foreign diplomats posted in India or a more reprehensible, complicit unwillingness to do so,” Dr Muhammad Faisal, the director general for South Asia Division at the FO, told Indian deputy high commissioner J.P. Singh, who had been summoned to receive the protest.

The Pakistan government had on Saturday complained that its diplomats and their families in India were being harassed and had threatened to pull out the families if the intimidation did not stop. A demarche was also made to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and the external affairs ministry in Delhi.

The officers, staff and families of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi continue to face intense harassment, intimidation and violence from the Indian state agencies, a late-night statement issued by the FO said.

It listed recent occurrences and noted that incidents of intimidation had “escalated exponentially” over the last few days.

“On the 7th and 8th March, 2018 the children of the officers of the mission were harassed while returning from school. Their cars were stopped by unknown people who threatened the children and filmed them. The protest lodged by the Pakistan High Commissioner with the Indian Foreign Secretary, instead of ameliorating the situation, was followed by further harassment of the officers of the commission, stoppage of provision of gas to the High Commission Residential Complex and threatening of contractors/staff working in the High Commission,” the FO statement said.

On March 9, it said, the car of the naval adviser was aggressively chased and on the same day, political counsellor was forcibly evicted from a taxi and harassed by unknown persons who used abusive language, threatened him and filmed the whole incident with impunity.

“On 12th March, the technicians working at the Pakistan High Commission, New Delhi, were threatened and stopped from working. The same evening our First Secretary was aggressively followed when he left work for his residence,” it added.

“Today, the car carrying the school-going children of our counsellor, who were returning from school, was followed by unknown persons on cars and motorcycles… and blocked. For psychological intimidation, videos and photographs of the children were constantly made for 40 minutes, leaving the children extremely traumatised. They were followed up to their residence,” the statement said.

It said the drivers of the High Commission were forcibly halted and their mobile phones aggressively switched off to prevent them from contacting anyone.

The FO said these incidents were continuing unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest level, providing specific details of the culprits’ vehicles and even the photographs of the individuals involved.

Mr Singh was reminded about the Indian government’s responsibility under the Vienna Convention for ensuring the safety and security of Pakistani diplomats and their families.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2018