NEW DELHI, Nov 9: India accused Pakistan on Friday of harassing its diplomats in Islamabad, saying two of its officials were illegally roughed up and searched by Pakistani intelligence officials on Thursday.

According to a statement by the Indian foreign ministry, Pakistan’s High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi was summoned to the ministry where he was handed a strong protest about two separate incidents. Pakistan’s version of the incident was not immediately available in Delhi.

The statement said Qazi was summoned by a senior foreign ministry official and told of the “Government of India’s strong protest about two very serious incidents of intimidation and harassment, involving officials based at the Indian High Commission at Islamabad.

“In the first incident, an official travelling by bus to Lahore en route to the Indian border at Wagah-Attari, with his wife and son, was accosted by an individual who introduced himself as an ISI officer,” the statement said.

When the bus arrived at Lahore, the person demanded to see the contents of the bag being carried by the Indian official. Upon his refusal to do so, the ISI official forcibly opened the bag. He also sought to confiscate money but returned it when the Indian official threatened to report the incident to the police. Thereafter, the statement said, “the ISI official threatened the Indian official with dire consequences if he returned to Pakistan. The Indian official lodged an FIR at the Gulberg Police Station in Lahore.”

Indian High Commissioner Vijay Nambiar also personally raised this incident with the Pakistan Foreign Secretary on Thursday evening, the statement said.

The second incident involving another staff member took place at Islamabad later in the evening at around 9.00pm.

“The staff member accompanied by his wife was returning by taxi from a public shopping area of Islamabad when they were intercepted by at least eight Pakistani intelligence operatives driving in a Landcruiser. The intelligence operatives dragged out both the staff member and his wife,” the Indian statement said.

It added that the wife was gagged and manhandled by an operative while being dragged to one side. “In the process, she sustained scratch injuries to her face.”

The Indian staff member was then pulled into the Landcruiser and driven away to an unknown destination. He was released the following morning, in the early hours, in a badly beaten and bruised state. An FIR has been lodged with the Kohsar Police Station in Islamabad.

“Shri R.S. Kalha, Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, conveyed Government of India’s strong condemnation of these reprehensible incidents, involving the forcible abduction, harassment and assault of High Commission officials and their family members,” the foreign ministry statement said.

“He also conveyed the government’s protest in the strongest possible terms at the crude and uncivilized behaviour of Pakistan’s intelligence operatives that included the assault on the wife of one of the staff members. The Pakistan High Commissioner was also reminded of Pakistan’s obligations under the Vienna Convention of 1960 and the 1992 Bilateral Code of Conduct for Treatment of Diplomatic/Consular Personnel in India and Pakistan.

Kalha also demanded that appropriate action be taken by the authorities in Pakistan against those responsible for the above incidents.

The fact that the second incident took place soon after the Indian High Commissioner had personally brought the first incident to the attention of the Pakistan Foreign Secretary, “naturally raises obvious questions,” the statement said.

“These high-handed actions are in complete violation of the Vienna Convention and the Bilateral Code of Conduct for the Treatment of Diplomatic/Consular Personnel that has been agreed to by India and Pakistan. Pakistan’s regular and repeated transgressions of its obligations in this manner form a consistent pattern and raise serious questions about its attitude and approach to its commitments under international and bilateral agreements,” the Indian statement said.