Pak High Commission Official Expelled, Given 24 Hours to Leave India
A Pakistani official working at the Pak High Commission in New Delhi was designated persona non grata by the Indian government on Tuesday for actions that were out of line with his diplomatic responsibilities.
He has been given a 24-hour notice to depart the country. The Pak High Commission’s Charge d’Affaires received a formal demarche informing them of this decision.
Following days of cross-border strikes brought on by India’s start of Operation Sindoor, the decision comes at a time when tensions between India and Pakistan are at an all-time high.
In retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which killed 26 people, the majority of whom were tourists, including one Nepalese person, the operation targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan.
India retaliated against Pakistan in several ways after the Pahalgam terror assault. These included reducing the size of the High Commissions in both nations, suspending the Indus Waters Treaty, and closing the Integrated Check Post at Attari.
India warned its citizens against visiting Pakistan and cancelled all visas previously granted to Pakistani nationals on April 24. The Ministry of External Affairs declared, “The Indian government has decided to’suspend visa services to Pakistani nationals with immediate effect'” as part of these diplomatic actions.
“While medical visas issued to Pakistani nationals will remain valid until April 29th, all valid visas issued to Pakistani nationals stand revoked from April 27th,” the ministry added. It did clarify, though, that “long-term visas already granted to Hindu Pakistani nationals will not be affected by the revocation of visas and will remain valid.”
It also declared, “All Pakistani nationals currently in India must leave India before the expiry of visas, as now amended.”
“Indian nationals are strongly advised to avoid traveling to Pakistan,” the ministry said in its advisory. It is also recommended that Indian people who are now in Pakistan return to India as soon as possible.
Authorities had previously announced that Pakistani nationals would no longer be eligible for the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) and requested all those who arrived through the Attari land border to leave by May 1.According to reports, the Pahalgam terror strike was the most brutal attack on Indian citizens since the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the bloodiest to target civilians in Jammu and Kashmir in almost two decades.