Reuters International

By Tommy Wilkes and Amjad Ali

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India and Pakistan on Thursday announced they would each expel one of the other's diplomats amid growing tension between the nuclear-armed arch-foes over the disputed region of Kashmir.

India said it would expel a Pakistani diplomat based in New Delhi who allegedly ran a spy ring that collected sensitive information about Indian security operations along its border.

Late on Thursday night, Pakistan's foreign ministry said it had declared an Indian diplomat, Surjeet Singh, persona non grata and given him 48 hours to leave the country.

Police in the Indian capital said the Pakistani diplomat was detained on Wednesday outside the gates to Delhi Zoo, where he had met two Indian associates whom police believe he had recruited to spy for him.

The Pakistani diplomat, who reportedly worked in Pakistan High Commission's visa section, and his alleged Indian accomplices were found with forged documents, defence-related maps, deployment charts and lists of officers working along India's border with Pakistan, Indian police said in a statement.

"There was high probability that the information passed on by these anti-national elements to PIO (Pakistan intelligence operative) is being used against the national interests and could be highly detrimental for national security," they said, adding they had been trying to break the spy ring for six months.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said the man, who was released from custody under diplomatic immunity rules, must leave the country by Saturday.

Pakistan's High Commission in New Delhi rejected the allegations, saying in a statement it "never engages in any activity that is incompatible with its diplomatic status".

Later on Thursday, Pakistan's foreign ministry announced it had declared Singh persona non grata and informed the Indian High Commission he had until Saturday to leave the country.

The statement said Singh was accused of activities "that were in violation of the Vienna Convention and the established diplomatic norms" but did not elaborate.

An aide to India's prime minister in New Delhi said the government was looking into the matter. India's external affair's ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads since a group of gunmen killed 19 Indian soldiers in September at an army camp in Kashmir, an attack India blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

India said it had sent special commandos into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to kill militants in a retaliatory operation that sharply soured relations between the neighbours.

Pakistan says the operation never happened and accuses India of inventing it to distract attention from its crackdown on protests in the part of Kashmir it controls.

Indian and Pakistani troops face off against each other along the de facto border in divided Kashmir - a region they both claim in full but control in part - and have exchanged fire several times this week in cross-border shelling.

(Reporting by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Toby Chopra)</s>Pakistan's foreign ministry said late on Thursday it has declared an Indian diplomat persona non grata and given him 48 hours to leave the country.

The diplomat was identified as Surjeet Singh, an official at the Indian High Commission, in a statement from the foreign ministry.

India said earlier on Thursday it would expel a Pakistani diplomat based in New Delhi who allegedly ran a spy ring that collected sensitive information about Indian security operations along its border.

The allegations come amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed arch-rivals over the disputed region of Kashmir.</s>ISLAMABAD — Pakistan and India on Thursday each expelled a diplomat from the other country in an exchange amid escalating tensions between the two South Asian archrivals over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

India announced earlier in the day that it expelled a staffer at the Pakistani Embassy in New Delhi after briefly detaining him for espionage activities.

Islamabad said the allegations against its diplomat, Mahmood Akhtar, were "false and unsubstantiated." Akhtar was told he had to leave New Delhi by Saturday.

Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted that India determined Akhtar was involved in espionage.

Ravinder Yadav, a New Delhi police official, said Akhtar, who worked at the visa section of the embassy, was found in possession of documents on the Indian troops deployed along the India-Pakistan border. Yadav said Indian security agencies had been tracking Akhtar's activities for the past six months.

"They detained him briefly for questioning and the documents were found on him," Yadav told reporter. Akhtar was released because of his diplomatic immunity.

Yadav said two Indian men, from the western state of Rajasthan bordering Pakistan, had been arrested for passing on information to Akhtar.

Later Thursday, Pakistan's foreign ministry announced it has asked Sujeel Singh, an official working at the Indian Embassy, to leave Pakistan for violating diplomatic norms.

It said Singh must leave the country also by Saturday, along with his family members.

Pakistani and Indian troops in recent weeks have frequently exchanged cross-border fire, causing casualties on both sides.

In the latest cease-fire violation, Indian troops killed a Pakistani woman and wounded seven people along the boundary with the Indian-controlled Kashmir, the military said, adding that Pakistan "responded to India's unprovoked firing and targeted Indian posts inflicting heavy casualties."

Associated Press writer Nirmala George in New Delhi contributed to this report.</s>SRINAGAR, India — Tensions soared Friday along the frontier between India and Pakistan in the disputed Kashmir region as soldiers from the nuclear-armed rivals continued to shell villages and border posts.

In the latest incident, an Indian paramilitary officer said a civilian and a soldier were killed by Pakistani firing on Friday.

The officer said Pakistani soldiers fired mortars and automatic gunfire at several border posts in the Jammu area in an "unprovoked" violation of the 2003 cease-fire accord between the countries. He said Indian soldiers "befittingly" retaliated.

The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide information to the media.

He said dozens of villagers living along the frontier were evacuated to safer places.

The Indian military said Friday that its soldiers returned Pakistani fire in at least two places along the Line of Control, the de facto border.

While the Line of Control is guarded by the Indian and Pakistani armies and divides the two parts of Kashmir, each country also has a separate paramilitary border force guarding the lower-altitude frontier separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab.

The two countries often trade accusations about who is to blame for firing and shelling in the region.

On Friday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry summoned India's high commissioner to protest the deaths of six civilians and injuries to 22 others in Indian firing along the frontier the previous day, the ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a senior officer with India's Border Security Force, Arun Kumar, told reporters in Jammu city that border guards have killed 15 Pakistani soldiers in "retaliatory firing and shelling" since last week.

"We have destroyed their OP (outposts) and damaged a few," Kumar was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.

In Islamabad, the Pakistani army said in a statement that the claim was part of an Indian propaganda campaign aimed at hiding its losses.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria accused India of committing cease-fire violations to divert the attention of the international community from its suppression of a wave of recent protests against Indian rule in Kashmir.

On Thursday, each nation expelled a diplomat amid the escalating tensions. Troops from the two countries have regularly traded fire since last month, when India said it carried out "surgical strikes" against militants in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir. Pakistan dismissed the claim and called on India to produce evidence to back it up.

Two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since 1947 have been fought over their competing claims to Kashmir. Each has administered part of Kashmir since 1947. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming anti-Indian militants and helping infiltrate into the Indian side.

Pakistan denies this, saying it only offers moral and diplomatic support to the militants and to Kashmiris who oppose Indian rule.

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.</s>Human right violations anywhere in the world get ample coverage in the local print and electronic media. However, the region which gets little or scant coverage despite serious human right violation is the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). Some newspapers in the Philippines avoid covering events in Kashmir as a matter of policy as they do not want to indulge in disputed issues. I respect their policy. However, I believe that such an attitude would rather encourage the perpetrators of such heinous crimes against humanity and would further exacerbate the situation in regions so affected. In other words it amounts to conniving with or rewarding the oppressor. However, it is a matter of great satisfaction that such a policy is not followed by all the newspapers and some dailies in the Philippines have the guts and the courage to call spade a spade. I express my thanks to this and all other newspapers who do not subscribe to such an ambivalent approach.

In the following paragraphs I would like to dilate upon the situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and the sufferings the people in Kashmir are exposed to. Just for the information of readers, in the last three months more than 115 Kashmiris have been martyred, over 15,000 are injured with scores in critical condition and several hundred blinded due to use of pellet guns, including children and women. The curfew imposed by Indian occupation forces has led to severe shortage of food, medicines, water and other basic amenities and has added to the Kashmiris’ plight.

The recent wave of killing started when, Indian security forces killed a young Kashmiri leader Mr. Burhan Wani. His death was protested by the local people, who braved the curfew to attend his funeral. As per estimates about 200,000 attended his funeral. Indian security forces claim that Wani was a militant leader, however, the fact that his death lead to wide scale protests throughout Kashmir proves that he enjoyed overwhelming support of the local people.

To recapitulate, the Kashmir problem has its basis in the partition of India and Pakistan in August 1947. It was agreed that the Muslim majority area would form Pakistan and Hindu majority area would form India. As regards princely states the rulers were asked to seek the views of their subjects in case of a dispute. Kashmir was a Muslim majority area ruled by a Hindu ruler who, under Indian pressure, decided to accede to India against the wishes of his subjects. This led to uprising against the ruler who invited Indian forces. Talking about the reasons for uprising Josef Korbel in his book “Danger in Kashmir” writes that to subdue Muslim’s voice the State’s forces were combing out the supporters of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan. Muslim personnel of the State military and police were dismissed and hundreds of political workers were lodged behind the bars. There were innumerable looting of the houses of political workers. Several people were shot dead on the mere suspicion for having pro- Pakistan views. Even the life and honour of Hindus who wanted the question of State’s accession in a democratic manner was not safe. The Hindus and Sikh refugees in the State were armed by the Kashmir Government and were encouraged to kill Muslims and others whose loyalty was considered to be dubious. As a result around 100,000 Muslim refugees fled to Pakistan carrying their stories of the tragic happenings in their homeland.

All this evoked strong reaction from the tribal groups in Pakistan who attacked Kashmir to extend help to the Muslims. Faced with this onslaught the Ruler of Kashmir requested India for military assistance. Interestingly the news about the invasion of the tribesmen reached Delhi on October 25 and by 27 October a large contingent of Indian army landed in Kashmir. There are strong evidence to prove that the planning to take over Kashmir was made much in advance as it is not possible for India to send fully armed army contingent in such a short time. Anyway, the Indian forces were able to thwart the advance of tribal forces. 27 October has since been marked as ‘Black Day’ and observed world over both by Kashmiris and Pakistanis.Incidentally today is the Black Day.

Here it would be pertinent to mention that Indian leadership resorted to all tactics to ensure the accession of princely states to India and even resorted to force to take over control of these states. For instance, when the Muslim ruler of Junagarh- a Hindu majority state- acceded to Pakistan, India refused to accept the accession, sent its armed forces and forcefully occupied the state. Similar action was taken against the Muslim ruler of Hyderabad- a Hindu majority state- who wanted to accede to Pakistan. Likewise in Tripura State the Muslims formed the largest group of the population. The ruler who was a Hindu acceded to India despite the fact that the state was surrounded on three side by Pakistan and all its communications were through Pakistan. Kashmir, as is evident, was meted the same treatment.

Thereafter, India took the issue to the UN Security Council. The several resolutions passed by the UN Security Council from 1948 onwards, inter alia, called for holding plebiscite in Kashmir to ascertain the views of the Kashmiri people. Though India took the Kashmir problem to the Security Council it resorted to all sorts of subterfuges to avoid holding the plebiscite. Since then the Kashmiris had been deprived their right of self- determination.

To suppress Kashmiri’s demand for the right of self- determination, India had resorted to excessive use of force against innocent civilians. In its report on July 2, 2015, the Amnesty International has highlighted killings of the innocent persons at the hands of Indian security forces in the Indian-held Kashmir. The report points out, “…the Armed Forces Special Powers Act allows troops to shoot to kill suspected militants or arrest them without a warrant…not a single member of the armed forces has been tried in a civilian court for violating human rights in Kashmir… India has martyred 100,000 people. More than 8,000 disappeared (while) in the custody of army and state police.”

India has been justifying these atrocities by equating Kashmiris struggle with terrorism and blames Pakistan of fomenting militancy. It also claims that Kashmir is part and parcel of India and whatever is happening in Kashmir is its internal affair.

India is wrong on both counts. First of all Kashmir is not and had never been part of India. Its status as a disputed territory stands affirmed by the numerous UN Security Council Resolutions. In addition the disputed status of Kashmir is also supported by the Indian leadership in the past. Prime Minister Nehru of India in his Statement on All India Radio on 3 November 1947 said:

“We have declared that the fate of Kashmir is ultimately to be decided by the people. The pledge we have given not only to the people of Kashmir but to the world. We will not and cannot back out of it.”

Later while addressing the Indian Parliament on August 7, 1952 he said,

“I want to stress that it is only the people of Kashmir who can decide the future of Kashmir…”

 There are plenty of statements by Indian leadership and the UN to the effect that Kashmir is a disputed territory and its future is to be decided by seeking the wishes of the Kashmiris through a plebiscite under the auspices of the UN.

India’s portrayal of Kashmiri’s struggle as terrorism is another farce which unfortunately has been taken at face value by the international community. Most probably such a stand is driven by economic/commercial and other similar interests in total disregard to the moral principles contained in their constitutions, UN Charter etc. etc. In fact, it is such an ambivalent attitude adopted by the international community that emboldened India to refuse to grant the Kashmiris their right of self-determination and claim that Kashmir is an integral part of India. The day is not far when India will take away the special status Kashmir enjoys by amending its constitution.

It is worth mentioning that India has maintained that United Nation Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement Pact in 1972 under which the two countries agreed to resolve all disputes including Kashmir bilaterally. UNMOGIP was set up in 1949 to supervise the ceasefire in the divided region. It has even asked UNMOGIP to hand over the Delhi premises from where it was running a liaison office for more than four decades. Interestingly, during bilateral talks it refuses to discuss Kashmir problem claiming that it is an integral part of India hence, non-negotiable. Instead it demands Pakistan to hand over the part of Kashmir held by Pakistan. This brings us to another interesting point. The part held by Pakistan is free of any violence, people are living peacefully. There is no demand to leave Pakistan and join India. Such a preposterous demand by India hardly makes any sense. It is an area open to everyone and is frequented by foreign tourists and members of the diplomatic community in Pakistan, including representatives of the United Nations. In fact, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has been denied access by India to Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, whereas Pakistan has never prevented UN officials from travelling to Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir is far from satisfactory. To strengthen its reign of terror India has stationed more than 600,000 army men. None seems to have asked India as to what necessitates deployment of such a large force in the region with a population of 10 million i.e one soldier for every 16.6 natives. And why such a huge deployment despite its repressive policies has been unable to check the freedom struggle despite numerous killings. Moreover, it is a fact that every year on the Indian Independence Day on August 15, Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and the world over observe it as Black Day to convey the message to the international community that India continues to usurp their inalienable right to self- determination. On the contrary to express solidarity with Pakistan, Pakistani flags are hoisted by the Kashmiris on 14 August- Pakistan Independence Day. All this is a clear manifestation that the struggle is predominantly indigenous and equating it with terrorism is nothing but a gross injustice on the part of India.

Kashmir is a universally recognized dispute with numerous UN Security Council Resolutions outstanding for almost 7 decades. Wars have not succeeded in resolving the issue of Kashmir. Dialogue is the best option to amicably resolve all issues between India and Pakistan including the dispute of Kashmir. Pakistan remains ready for dialogue.

The international community should rise to the occasion and tell India that the treatment being meted out to the Kashmiris is simply unacceptable. India should stop its human rights violations, and fulfill its commitments under the United Nations Security Council Resolutions to resolve the Kashmir dispute in a peaceful manner. President Duterte had very aptly said that a human rights violation, whether committed by Moses or Abraham, is still a violation of human rights. The killings in Kashmir are not an ancient phenomenon. These are very much current and are being committed despite International community’s so- called commitments to human rights. The people in the Philippines have shown their sensitivities to such violations even if happened in the last century. I am sure, they cannot remain insensitive to the killings presently going on in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

The author is a counselor of the Pakistan Embassy in the Philippines.</s>Indian police temporarily detained a Pakistani diplomat working in New Delhi for allegedly running a spy racket that accessed sensitive information about Indian security operations along its border, officials said on Thursday.

The detention comes amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed arch-rivals over the disputed region of Kashmir.

Delhi police said the man was caught on Wednesday outside the gates to Delhi Zoo, where he had met two Indian associates police believe he had recruited to spy for him.

The Indians and the diplomat, who reportedly worked in Pakistan High Commission’s visa section, were found with forged documents, as well as defense-related maps, deployment charts and lists of officers working along India’s border with Pakistan, police said in a statement.

“There was high probability that the information passed on by these anti-national elements to PIO (Pakistan intelligence operative) is being used against the national interests and could be highly detrimental for national security,” the police said, adding that they had been trying to bust the spy ring for six months.

Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi rejected the allegations.

“The high commissioner has further said that the Pakistan High Commission never engages in any activity that is incompatible with its diplomatic status,” it said in a statement.

India’s foreign ministry said the diplomat, who was later released under diplomatic immunity rules, had been declared a “persona non grata for espionage activities” and they had summoned the Pakistani high commissioner to make their case.

India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads since a group of gunmen killed 19 Indian soldiers in September at an army camp in Kashmir, an attack India blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

India said it had sent special commandos into Pakistan to kill militants in a retaliatory operation that sharply soured relations between the neighbors.

Pakistan says the operation never happened and accuses India of inventing it to distract attention from its crackdown on protests in the portion of Kashmir it controls.

Indian and Pakistani troops face off against each other along the de facto border in Kashmir – a region they both claim in full but control in part – and have exchanged fire several times this week in cross-border shelling.</s>India on Friday called Pakistan’s decision to expel an official from its mission in Islamabad as a step without “justification.” The official response came a day after Pakistan expelled an Indian official, as India declared a staffer in Pakistan High Commission persona non grata.

“Government notes with regret the Government of Pakistan’s decision to declare Shri Surjeet Singh, Assistant Personnel and Welfare Officer in the High Commission of India in Islamabad, persona non grata and expel him and his family members. No justification has been provided by the Government of Pakistan except for the completely baseless and unsubstantiated allegation that his activities were not in keeping with diplomatic norms,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

Pakistan on Thursday accused India of violating the international convention for protection of diplomats after New Delhi briefly detained a staffer of the Pakistan High Commission. High Commissioner Abdul Basit protested against the detention during his meeting with Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar after the Ministry of External Affairs called him to inform that the staffer has been declared persona non grata.

“The Government condemns Pakistan’s step. It is obvious that the step is an afterthought following yesterday’s apprehension of Pakistan High Commission staffer Mehmood Akhtar in Delhi while indulging in anti-India activities. Pakistan’s action further confirms that it continues to be in denial of its anti-India activities, including cross-border terrorism,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

The expulsions came three years after a senior Pakistani diplomat was assaulted on the streets of Delhi in an apparent road rage related incident.</s>SRINAGAR, India — An Indian paramilitary officer says a civilian and a soldier have been killed in firing by Pakistani troops along the volatile frontier in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The officer said Pakistani soldiers fired mortars and automatic gunfire at several border posts in Jammu region on Friday in an "unprovoked" violation of the cease-fire accord between India and Pakistan in the contested region.

The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide information to the media.

A senior officer with India's Border Security Force, Arun Kumar, said border guards have killed 15 Pakistani soldiers in "retaliatory firing and shelling" since last week.

Troops from the two countries have regularly traded fire in recent weeks, causing casualties on both sides.</s>SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Two Indian soldiers have been killed in fighting with Pakistani soldiers and suspected militants along the volatile frontier in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Saturday.

An army officer said militants overnight ambushed an Indian army patrol, killing one, while Pakistani soldiers provided covering fire near Machil sector along the Line of Control dividing the disputed region between India and Pakistan.

The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media, said that militants crossed over from the Pakistani-controlled Kashmir while taking advantage of rugged terrain and thick foliage. He said Indian soldiers retaliated and killed an insurgent in what he described as “face-to-face combat.”

He said the militants “mutilated” the body of the Indian soldier before fleeing to the Pakistani side.

There was no independent confirmation of the incident.

In a strongly worded statement, the Indian army called the soldier’s mutilation a “despicable act.”

“This barbarism is a true reflection which pervades official and non-official organizations across the border,” the statement said. “This act will invite an appropriate response.”

Shortly after, cross-border clashes erupted at several posts in Machil sector, killing another Indian soldier.

In Pakistan, the military in a statement said that India on Saturday again resorted to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control and that the soldiers from the two countries were still exchanging fire. It did not say Pakistan suffered any casualties.

Indian and Pakistani troops in recent weeks have frequently exchanged cross-border fire, causing casualties on both sides. Both have blamed each other for initiating it.

While the Line of Control is guarded by the Indian and Pakistani armies and divides the two parts of Kashmir, each country also has a separate paramilitary border force guarding the lower-altitude frontier separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab.

Troops from the two countries have regularly traded fire since last month, when India said it carried out “surgical strikes” against militants in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir. Pakistan dismissed the claim and called on India to produce evidence to back it up.

On Thursday, each nation expelled a diplomat amid the escalating tensions.

Two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since 1947 have been fought over their competing claims to Kashmir. Each has administered part of Kashmir since 1947. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming anti-Indian militants and helping infiltrate into the Indian side.

Pakistan denies this, saying it only offers moral and diplomatic support to the militants and to Kashmiris who oppose Indian rule.

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.</s>ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's Foreign Ministry says India is expelling a Pakistani diplomat in New Delhi after briefly detaining him on what it called "false and unsubstantiated charges."

In a statement, it said India on Thursday informed Pakistan's high commissioner, the top Pakistani diplomat in the country, that embassy staff member Mehmood Akhtar has until Oct. 29 to leave the country.

He said India determined that Akhtar was involved in espionage activities, a charge rejected by Pakistan.

Tension between the two nuclear-armed has spiked since last month over the territory of Kashmir, which is divided between the two sides and is claimed by both.
India and Pakistan each expel a diplomat from the other country as tensions grow over Kashmir.