NEW DELHI: Hours after Islamabad declared Indian Visa Counsellor Deepak Kaul persona non grata on Saturday, India expelled Political Counsellor in the Pakistan High Commission Syed Muhammad Rafique Ahmed in a tit-for-tat action.

The expulsions, the first publicised since India and Pakistan resumed their peace process in January 2004, come weeks after the July 11 Mumbai blasts.

Pakistan's Deputy High Commissioner Afrasayab was summoned to the External Affairs Ministry by Joint Secretary (Pakistan) Dilip Sinha and informed that Mr. Ahmed was expelled for "being involved in activities incompatible with his diplomatic status."

During the meeting, Mr. Sinha "lodged a strong protest" against the "outrageous treatment" meted out to Mr. Kaul by Pakistan intelligence agencies and rejected Islamabad's charge that the Indian diplomat was engaged in activities incompatible with his diplomatic status.

Such action, Mr. Sinha stated, "could not but undermine" bilateral relations between the two countries. An External Affairs Ministry statement quoted the Joint Secretary as telling Mr. Afrasayab that Pakistan's decision was in "blatant violation" of the Vienna Convention as well as the Code of Conduct for Treatment of Diplomatic/Consular personnel in India and Pakistan, 1992.

"The officer [Mr. Kaul] was not in possession of any sensitive documents allegedly handed over to him by a so-called contact. These must have obviously been planted on him in order to falsely implicate him," the statement said.

According to the Ministry, Mr. Kaul had obtained permission to travel to Amritsar by road to fetch his family. Ninety km before Lahore, he was stopped by Pakistani agencies and taken, "hooded and handcuffed," to an unidentified location where he was "interrogated intermittently" for about five hours.

Mr. Afrasayab told this correspondent that Mr. Kaul was neither handcuffed nor interrogated. "It did not happen," he said.

During his meeting with Mr. Sinha, the Pakistan official also rejected the charge that Mr. Rafique Ahmed indulged in activities incompatible with his diplomatic status. Mr. Ahmed has been asked to leave India by August 7.

According to the External Affairs Ministry spokesman, the first information about Mr. Deepak Kaul's expulsion was put out by Pakistan's Geo TV and was based on information provided by Islamabad's intelligence agencies. His comments appeared to be in response to an informal understanding between India and Pakistan not to publicise expulsions between the two countries.

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