Pakistan and India expel diplomats

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and India each ordered the expulsion of one of the other's diplomats today, signalling deepening mistrust in the aftermath of the bombings which killed more than 180 in Mumbai last month.

The tit-for-tat expulsions came less than a week after the two countries pledged to push a 2 1/2-year-old peace process forward.

Pakistan asked India to withdraw Deepak Kaul, a consular official at the Indian High Commission (embassy) in Islamabad, by next week for suspected involvement in spying.

"He was found involved in activities incompatible with his diplomatic status," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. "He was caught red-handed."

Hours later, an Indian Foreign Ministry official said a Pakistani diplomat was also being expelled.

"Their deputy high commissioner was called in and we lodged a strong protest," the Indian official told Reuters.

Indian media reported that Kaul had been detained while on his way to Wagah border crossing in eastern Pakistan to meet his family and had been beaten, blindfolded and handcuffed before being handed over to Indian diplomats.

Aslam denied that account.

"I want to say very clearly that he was not handcuffed, he was not blindfolded, he was not tortured," she said.

"He was detained from a place outside Islamabad, he was brought straight to Islamabad and handed over to the Indian High Commission."

The peace process came under severe strain after New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based Islamist militants for the July 11 bombings that killed more than 180 people and wounded hundreds more on commuter trains in India's financial and commercial hub.

Indian investigators suspect Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Pakistani military spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence used disaffected Indian Muslims to carry out the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan and Lashkar have denied the charges.

India called off a scheduled meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries in New Delhi last month, arousing fears that the peace process was coming apart.

But the two foreign secretaries met in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka last week on the sidelines of a regional conference and vowed to nudge the process forward.

The two countries have fought three wars since independence from British rule in 1947.

"These (expulsions) are negative trends. It can't be said that such acts will totally reverse the process but these can vitiate the atmosphere and put a further brake on the initiation of the dialogue," analyst and former army general Talat Masood said.

- REUTERS