Families, Childrenof Pakistan High Commission Harassed By Indian Agencies

Families and children of officers and staff of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi are continuously facing intense harassment, intimidation and outright violence of the Indian state agencies.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Mar, 2018 ) :Families and children of officers and staff of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi are continuously facing intense harassment, intimidation and outright violence of the Indian state agencies.

According to foreign office statement on Tuesday, this deliberate bullying was not confined to a single isolated event, but continued unabated in a series of incidents, especially targeting the children of officers and staff of Pakistani High Commission.

Some of these events which occured on March 7 and 8, the children of the officers of the Mission were harassed while returning from school, the statement added. The protest lodged by Pakistani High Commissioner with the Indian Foreign Secretary.

Instead of taking steps to ameliorate the situation by the Indian government, further harassment of the officers of the High Commission, stoppage of provision of gas to the High Commission residential complex and threatening of contractors and staff working in the High Commission were continued.

On March 9, the car of the Naval Adviser was aggressively chased. On the same day, Counselor Political was forcibly evicted from a cab and harassed by unknown persons, who used abusive language, threatened him and filmed the whole incident with impunity.

On 12th March, the technicians working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi were threatened and stopped from working. "The same evening our First Secretary was aggressively followed when he left work for his residence," the statement said.

"Today, the car carrying the school-going children of our Counselor, who were returning from school, was followed by unknown persons on cars and motorcycles harassed, intimidated and their vehicle was blocked.

For psychological intimidation, videos and photographs of the children were constantly made for 40 minutes, leaving the children extremely traumatized. They were followed upto their residence." Additionally, the drivers of the High Commission were forcibly halted and their mobile phones switched off to prevent them from contacting anyone.

The statement said all these incidents continued unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest level, providing specific details of the culprit's vehicles.

"Our High Commission has also shared photographs identifying the individuals, who forcibly halted and took pictures of the officer, today." The Indian Deputy High Commissioner Mr. J.P. Singh was summoned by Director General (South Asia & SAARC) Dr.

Mohammad Faisal and a strong protest was lodged at the maltreatment being meted out to the officials and families of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. He emphasized that under the Vienna Convention, the safety and the security of Pakistani diplomats and their families was the responsibility of the Indian government.

The foreign office statement said the total apathy and failure of the Indian government to put a halt to these despicable incidents, sparing not even young children, indicated both a lack of capacity to protect foreign diplomats posted in India or a more reprehensible and complicit unwillingness to do so.