NEW DELHI, Jan 20: A verbal duel between the foreign ministries of India and Pakistan intensified on Monday over the alleged harassment of each other’s top diplomats as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee upped the ante by calling on the international community to act against Islamabad over terrorism.

Significantly, Mr Vajpayee’s remarks came in response to questions by reporters about a purported statement by President Pervez Musharraf in which he had apparently shared his concern that the western powers could target Pakistan after finishing with Iraq.

Star News quoted Mr Vajpayee, visiting the Indian Ocean island city of Port Blair, as blaming the international community “for not taking strong action against Pakistan”. As a result, he claimed, the country had become a centre for terrorist activities.

“Although Pakistan is a member of international coalition formed to fight against terrorism, it is Pakistan where terrorists are gathering,” Mr Vajpayee alleged. “They have contacts with terrorists in other parts of the globe and yet there is no action taken against them,” he said.

Mr Vajpayee had joined India’s allegation on Sunday that its Charge-d’Affaires in Islamabad Sudhir Vyas was harassed by Pakistani intelligence sleuths who blocked his car.

On Monday, Pakistan’s Acting High Commissioner Jaleel Abbas Jilani told Dawn that he had filed a protest with the Indian foreign ministry on Jan 7 about similar harassments faced by him from Indian sleuths.