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Expelled diplomats leave for home today

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Feb. 9. It is calm after Saturday's storm as the expelled Charge d'Affaires of the Indian High Commission, Sudhir Vyas, and his four colleagues prepare to leave for India tomorrow morning. The five were asked by Pakistan yesterday to leave the country within 48 hours.

They plan to start around 8 a.m. and cross over to India at the Wagah border by noon. Permission has been given to them for travel by road. Air, rail and road links between the two countries have been suspended since January 1, 2002. Their families will leave within in a week.

It was the same modus operandi that was followed in the fourth week of January when Pakistan expelled two diplomats and two staffers in the mission, in response to the expulsion of four staffers of the Pakistan mission in New Delhi.

Besides Mr. Vyas, Pakistan expelled Rahul Rasgotra, First Secretary (Commerce, Media and Visa), along with staffers M.R. Balu, Ranbir Singh and S.R. Anand following New Delhi's expulsion of the Pakistan CDA, Jaleel Abbas Jilani, and four members of its High Commission in India.

Mr. Vyas would be succeeded as CDA by Vikram Misri who was promoted as Counsellor from his previous position as First Secretary, Political, hours before Pakistan retaliated.

With the departure of Mr. Vyas from Islamabad and Mr. Jilani from New Delhi, the status of the two missions stand further downgraded.

Status of the Indian mission was downgraded in the last week of December 2001 when India decided to recall the then Indian High Commissioner, Vijay K. Nambiar, as part of a series of measures following the December 13 Parliament attack. But Islamabad did not follow suit on the plea that the presence of a High Commissioner-level officer was necessary, given the heightened tensions between the two countries.

However, a few months later, Pakistan was left with no option but to recall the High Commissioner, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, after India sought his withdrawal.

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