Date:22/01/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/01/22/stories/2003012206150100.htm

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I am under aggressive surveillance, says diplomat

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Jan. 21. There is no end to the ordeal of the Indian Acting High Commissioner, Sudhir Vyas, here as personnel of the Pakistan intelligence agencies allegedly continue the "aggressive surveillance'' on him.

Mr. Vyas said the only difference was — unlike Saturday when his official flag car was blocked more than once as he was on his way to attend diplomatic functions — that the activities of the sleuths on Monday and today were confined to "aggressive surveillance.''

The Indian mission has dashed off a third note verbale (protest note) to the Pakistan Foreign Office detailing the treatment meted out to Mr. Vyas and urged it to direct the authorities concerned to cease "aggressive surveillance.'' However, there was no response from the Foreign Office.

"It is aggressive surveillance. I am surrounded by three or four cars when I'm travelling,'' Mr. Vyas said when asked about the developments during the day. ``There has been no boxing in or halting of the flagged car and no blockade outside my residence as happened on the first day."

Describing the surveillance, he said ``they come in front, they come at the side, they come in the back and slow down or change speed and suddenly brake to try and throw us off balance.''

A spokesman of the Pakistan Foreign Office, however, rejected fresh Indian allegations that Pakistani intelligence officials chased Indian diplomats for the second day on Tuesday, but did not stop them.

The allegations were "baseless" and New Delhi was trying to "cover up" the harassment being meted out to Pakistani diplomats in India.

On Monday, the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said that the Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan in New Delhi, Jalil Abbas Jillani, had lodged a complaint with the Indian Foreign Office on January 7 detailing the harassment meted out to him and other staffers of the Pakistan mission.

Islamabad had "deliberately chosen" not to rush to the press as it did not want to further vitiate the strained relations between India and Pakistan.