Islamabad Two staffers of the Indian High Commission in Pakistan, who went missing and were arrested on a trumped up 'attempted hit and run charge' in Islamabad, have been released and are back at the mission, sources said on Monday. India had earlier in the day summoned Pakistan's Charge d'affaires Syed Haider Shah and issued a demarche over the reported arrest. The demarche made it clear that there should be no interrogation or harassment of the Indian staff and the responsibility for the safety and security of the concerned diplomatic personnel lay squarely with the Pakistani authorities.
The arrest was seen to be a tit for tat action by Islamabad and has come two weeks after India expelled two Pakistan High Commission officials on charges of espionage. Following their expulsion, Pakistani agencies started tailing a number of Indian High Commission officials in Islamabad, including charge d'affaires Gaurav Ahluwalia, causing them much harassment. As part of the ISI ‘subterfuge,’ media reports emanating from Islamabad cited sources as saying that the two staffers were arrested for allegedly trying to flee after running over a man on a footpath in Islamabad and critically injuring him.
A BMW car hit a pedestrian who was walking on the city's Embassy Road at around 8am and the driver attempted to flee, Geo News reported, quoting ‘eyewitnesses’. The car was stopped by a huge crowd which handed over the two men to Islamabad Police, the channel further claimed. It was only after they were arrested that the police learnt that the two persons were staffers of the Indian High Commission, the channel further claimed. It is understood that the two ‘missing’ staff members were CISF drivers who didn't reach their destination after stepping out for some work in their BMW vehicle. Pakistan had downgraded diplomatic ties by expelling the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad following India's decision to withdraw special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August last year.
