ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: Foreign Ministry officials expressed dismay on Thursday at the continuing harassment of Pakistan High Commission staff in New Delhi, and conceded that India had responded to Pakistan’s confidence-building measures with hostility.

Pakistan had recently offered to New Delhi that it would return Indian fishermen held prisoners in Pakistan as a confidence-building measure, but the offer was met with the usual Indian belligerence.

India reacted to this offer by first refusing to let the prisoners enter India through Wagah and then laying a siege on the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

Dawn learnt on Thursday that Indian agencies had blocked entry to all visitors and visa seekers at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and were harassing the staff there.

The siege of the Pakistan High Commission comes on the heels of the Indian intelligence agencies compelling Indian teachers at Pakistan High Commission’s school to resign from their jobs.

Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi lodged a protest with the Indian ministry of external affairs on Wednesday over what it termed continued and unabated harassment of Pakistan’s embassy staff and their wives even during their shopping trips.

The reports of siege on the High Commission in New Delhi have eclipsed the recent optimism about Pakistan-India relations after the two countries exchanged visas for their deputy high commissioners on Tuesday.

India’s deputy High Commissioner designate T.C.A. Raghavan, who was issued a visa by Pakistani authorities to soon join Indian High Commission in Islamabad, is a close confidant of former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh.

Mr Raghavan acted as staff officer to Jaswant Singh during his tenure as foreign minister. Later, when Mr Singh’s portfolio was swapped with Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, he took Mr Raghavan with him to the ministry of finance.

Currently, Mr Raghavan is serving as director at the ministry of finance. An officer of the 1982 batch of the Indian Foreign Service, Mr Raghavan is an Arabic-speaking Indian diplomat.

Meanwhile, a former Indian foreign secretary J. N. Dixit in his article entitled: “Marching disorders” in The Indian Express on Thursday expressed concern over the role of the home ministry in the expulsion of acting high commissioner Jalil Abbas Jilani. He observed that Jilani’s expulsion highlighted gaps in India’s foreign policy.

“The entire exercise was controlled by the home ministry and police authorities. There was no, or little, consultation with the ministry of external affairs...The first statements about the incident and follow-up action being considered were made by a joint commissioner of police, and so on,” wrote Mr Dixit.

When the attention of an official of the foreign office was drawn to Dixit’s article he said: “Mr Dixit has correctly assessed the situation. When Jalil complained and sought an end to his harassment, he was informed by Arun Singh, joint secretary In charge of Pakistan in the MEA, that the Indian intelligence agencies were beyond their control and regretted his inability to put an end to Jalil’s harassment and repeated provocations by the Indian intelligence agencies.”