India expels two Pakistani officials on ‘espionage’ charges

May 31, 2020

The Indian government has expelled two officials at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, accusing them of being involved in spying activities, the country’s foreign ministry said on Sunday.

“The government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission,” the ministry said in a statement.

The pair had to leave the country “within 24 hours” and Pakistan’s Charge de Affaires was issued with a “strong protest” over the alleged activities of the officials, the ministry added.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry condemned the expulsion and alleged that the two were detained and tortured by Indian authorities.

“The Indian action has been accompanied by a negative pre-planned and orchestrated media campaign, which is a part of persistent anti-Pakistan propaganda,” the ministry said.

Tension over Kashmir

The move is likely to increase tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian countries, who have a long-running dispute over the Muslim-majority Kashmir region. Pakistan and India both rule part of the disputed Himalayan territory, but claim it in full.

Ties between Islamabad and New Delhi further deteriorated after Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped India-administered Kashmir of its semi-autonomous status in August, last year.

Read more: India’s new residence law triggers fury in Kashmir

Modi said the move was necessary to quell a Pakistan-sponsored Islamist insurgency in the area.

Earlier in May, Indian security forces killed Junaid Ashraf Sahrai, a Kashmiri separatist commander, and his aide in a shootout. Police said Sahrai was a militant commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, Kashmir’s largest rebel group.

On Wednesday, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that any Indian aggression will receive a “befitting response” from Pakistan.

“India’s bellicosity is aimed at provoking Pakistan, but we showed patience in the past and will exercise restraint in future too,” state-run Radio Pakistan quoted Qureshi as saying.

Qureshi also claimed the Pakistani military shot down an Indian drone on Wednesday, which “was an example of India aggression.”

Read more: India returns alleged spy bird to Pakistan

Espionage claims

India and Pakistan regularly level espionage charges against each other.

In July 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Pakistan to review the death penalty for Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, a former Indian navy commander. New Delhi had complained of an unfair trial and sought the ICJ’s intervention.

Read more: Kulbhushan Jadhav: UN court orders Pakistan to review Indian ‘spy’ death sentence

Pakistan arrested Jadhav in March 2016. Islamabad claims that Jadhav confessed to a Pakistani military court that he had been tasked by India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence agency to “plan, coordinate, and organize espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan” in the southwestern province of Baluchistan and the southern port city of Karachi. New Delhi denies these allegations.

In April 2017, a military court sentenced Jadhav to death, a verdict that angered Indian authorities, who believe that if the ruling was carried out, it would substantially damage ties between the two nuclear-armed countries.

Read more: Why calls for independence are getting louder in Pakistani Kashmir

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

An unprecedented danger?

On February 27, Pakistan’s military said that it had shot down two Indian fighter jets over disputed Kashmir. A Pakistani military spokesman said the jets were shot down after they’d entered Pakistani airspace. It is the first time in history that two nuclear-armed powers have conducted air strikes against each other.

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

India drops bombs inside Pakistan

The Pakistani military has released this image to show that Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistani territory for the first time since the countries went to war in 1971. India said the air strike was in response to a recent suicide attack on Indian troops based in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan said there were no casualties and that its airforce repelled India’s aircraft.

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

No military solution

Some Indian civil society members believe New Delhi cannot exonerate itself from responsibility by accusing Islamabad of creating unrest in the Kashmir valley. A number of rights organizations demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government reduce the number of troops in Kashmir and let the people decide their fate.

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

No end to the violence

On February 14, at least 41 Indian paramilitary police were killed in a suicide bombing near the capital of India-administered Kashmir. The Pakistan-based Jihadi group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, claimed responsibility. The attack, the worst on Indian troops since the insurgency in Kashmir began in 1989, spiked tensions and triggered fears of an armed confrontation between the two nuclear-armed powers.

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

A bitter conflict

Since 1989, Muslim insurgents have been fighting Indian forces in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir – a region of 12 million people, about 70 percent of whom are Muslim. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

India strikes down a militant rebellion

In October 2016, the Indian military has launched an offensive against armed rebels in Kashmir, surrounding at least 20 villages in Shopian district. New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing the militants, who cross over the Pakistani-Indian “Line of Control” and launch attacks on India’s paramilitary forces.

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

Death of a Kashmiri separatist

The security situation in the Indian part of Kashmir deteriorated after the killing of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July 2016. Protests against Indian rule and clashes between separatists and soldiers have claimed hundreds of lives since then.

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

The Uri attack

In September 2016, Islamist militants killed at least 17 Indian soldiers and wounded 30 in India-administered Kashmir. The Indian army said the rebels had infiltrated the Indian part of Kashmir from Pakistan, with initial investigations suggesting that the militants belonged to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group, which has been active in Kashmir for over a decade.

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

Rights violations

Indian authorities banned a number of social media websites in Kashmir after video clips showing troops committing grave human rights violations went viral on the Internet. One such video that showed a Kashmiri protester tied to an Indian army jeep — apparently as a human shield — generated outrage on social media.

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

Demilitarization of Kashmir

Those in favor of an independent Kashmir want Pakistan and India to step aside and let the Kashmiri people decide their future. “It is time India and Pakistan announce the timetable for withdrawal of their forces from the portions they control and hold an internationally supervised referendum,” Toqeer Gilani, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in Pakistani Kashmir, told DW.

India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price

No chance for secession

But most Kashmir observers don’t see it happening in the near future. They say that while the Indian strategy to deal strictly with militants and separatists in Kashmir has partly worked out, sooner or later New Delhi will have to find a political solution to the crisis. Secession, they say, does not stand a chance.

Author: Shamil Shams