India, Pak expel diplomats

ISLAMABAD, Oct 3 (PTI) — In a closely-guarded action, India and Pakistan expelled one diplomat each from their respective countries earlier this week, NNI agency reported, quoting diplomatic sources today.

According to it, India expelled a Pakistani High Commission official in New Delhi on Tuesday, charging him of espionage. The Pakistani Government retaliated by expelling Mr AB Shukla, an attache-rank officer at the Indian High Commission, on Wednesday, it said.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed the expulsion saying, "Such things do happen in view of the state of relations between the two countries."

The move had been kept secret in view of the foreign secretary-level talks between the two countries scheduled for October 15-18, the agency said.

Last year too both the countries had expelled one diplomat each on the eve of the bilateral talks which broke down due to differences over the Kashmir issue.

The talks are being resumed after a gap of one year following an agreement between Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Atal Behari Vajpayee during their meeting in New York on the fringes of the UN Security Council meeting on September 23.

Meanwhile, expressing apprehensions that "no quick fixes" may be possible without the third party mediation on Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan today said that one of the important issues to be discussed at the forthcoming Indo-Pak talks would be "bilateral nuclear and conventional restraint."

"We would very much want to talk to India on nuclear and conventional restraint and stabilisation", Tariq Altaf, a spokesman of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, told newsmen here on Saturday while referring to the talks scheduled for October 15 to October 18.

Mr Altaf, who was reacting to the statement of the US State Department about new terms for lifting of sanctions on India and Pakistan, said: "It is an important matter in the given context as India and Pakistan are holding this kind of substantive meeting after the nuclearisation of South Asia which has created lots of complications in the region and security threat has been heightened".

US Assistant Secretary of State, Karl Inderfurth, had said on Thursday that for paving the way for the lifting of sanctions, India and Pakistan should have a bilateral nuclear restraint accord and also a moratorium on fissile material production.

The spokesman also expressed apprehensions about the positive outcome of the talks over the Jammu and Kashmir issue saying "we expect no quick fixes this time either." Bilateral talks cannot yield results without the third party mediation, he said.

The Pakistani spokesman, however, said: "We are somewhat concerned that in spite of our positive and cooperative attitude we get a sense of the goal post being removed which creates avoidable complications" in an obvious reference to the demand for the moratorium on the production of fissile material production.

"It is a very complex matter and it is very difficult to agree to it", Mr Altaf said adding that several questions were attached with this and, "these are not easy questions. You cannot make a straightforward demand and expect a straightforward compliance."

He drew attention to the US Congress resolution on nuclear tests in South Asia which called upon the US President as well as the leaders of all nations and the United Nations to encourage diplomatic and negotiated resolution of the Kashmir issue.

Mr Altaf said the credit for the resumption of the Indo-Pak dialogue went to Pakistan’s foreign policy for remaining steadfast to its principled position that Jammu and Kashmir being the "core issue" should be addressed "specifically and substantively."

The agreement to resume the talks was reached during Prime Minister-level meeting in New York on September 23 and it was agreed that the two issues of Kashmir and peace and security would be discussed between the two Foreign Secretaries in Islamabad between October 15 and October 18 while rest of the six issues would be discussed at the next round in New Delhi in the first half of November.

On the issue of Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the spokesman said that Pakistan had already made it clear that it was ready to adhere to the treaty once the atmosphere of coercion was removed while it had already lifted the caveat on the commencement of the FMCT.