ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: Senior government officials on Tuesday rubbished Indian Defence Minister (now named foreign minister) Pranab Mukherjee’s charge that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was trying to infiltrate and subvert the Indian armed forces.

When attention of some officials was drawn to the latest Indian allegation against the ISI, they rejected it as New Delhi’s obsession with ISI and inherent suspicion that it was behind every evil that occurred across the border.

Ridiculing Mr Mukherjee’s accusation that Pakistan was encouraging the Indian soldiers to betray their country, a military official said: “This only exposes the vulnerability of the Indian armed forces that seem so fearful of the ISI.” He added: “There’s got to be end to this paranoid and Indian blame game.”

Last week the Indian government claimed it had arrested an army sergeant for allegedly handing secret military documents to a Pakistan High Commission employee in New Delhi.—Q.A.