Pakistan releases Indian embassy staff detained over alleged incident in attack
According to sources in Pakistan who were aware of this, staff members were driving at speed, crashed into a pedestrian who was injured and then tried to escape.
The first police report received from CNN states that the two men were arrested for “reckless and unfortunate driving.”
Sources specified that the two of them were employees of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, and not diplomats. The source added that the two were released at the “special request of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry” and were handed over to a senior Indian High Commission official because they are still under diplomatic immunity.
After the arrest, police discovered that the men have diplomatic immunity.
Rising tensions
The incident comes at a time of great tension between two nuclear-armed neighbors.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said the decision to declare the two people non grata “was accompanied by a negative pre-planned and orchestrated media campaign, which is part of persistent anti-Pakistani propaganda”.
It said the Indian envoy had been summoned and issued his demarche, condemning “unfounded Indian accusations”.
Expulsions of diplomats between India and Pakistan are common, especially when tensions in the disputed area of Kashmir are high or in military operations or militant attacks.
In August last year, the Indian government stripped Kashmir of its autonomy and special status, forcing Pakistan to weaken diplomatic relations and suspend bilateral trade with India.
The two countries have been waging a long-running dispute over Kashmir for more than 70 years.
Pakistan on Monday tried to frame the move against High Commission officials as an attempt by the Indian side to divert attention from domestic political issues and the situation in Kashmir.
“This would serve the government of Prime Minister Modi and the‘ neighborhood first ’well to understand that India’s neighbors pose a much smaller problem than their own domestic inadequacies, failures and fascism,” he wrote on Twitter.
Sophia Saifi called from Islamabad, James Griffiths from Hong Kong. CNN’s Adeel Raja, Vedika Sud and Helen Regan contributed to the reporting.
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