The Hindu : India lodges protest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 02, 2002

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India lodges protest

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 1. India today lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over the abduction of its staffer in its High Commission in Islamabad and said the incident was ''unfortunate and regrettable''. ''Our acting High Commissioner in Islamabad has protested against the abduction very strongly during a meeting with the Director-General, South Asia, in the Pakistan Foreign Office and we have conveyed our strong protest to the Pakistan Government,'' the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Nirupama Rao, said. India wanted the immediate release of Kulwant Singh, she said. ''We expect Pakistan to respond to this demand without any delay and to ensure no harm whatsoever comes to him.''

Asked who could be the culprit, she said that Pakistan's intelligence agencies had played a ''major role'' in all such previous occasions. The incident showed Pakistan's ''pathological hostility'' towards India and its intelligence agencies ''play a major part in such abductions and their behavioural patterns are well-known to us.'' She, however, acknowledged that today's abduction was a retaliation to Friday's incident involving an assistant from the Pakistani High Commission here.

The Pakistani staffer, Amir Shabir, was caught red-handed accepting classified documents from an Indian Air Force sergeant. The Pakistan Foreign Office has lodged a strong protest with India over the alleged ``abduction and torture''

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