New Delhi: Pakistan Monday evening released two Indian High Commission officials who were detained earlier in the day for their alleged involvement in a hit-and-run.
Dwimu Brahma and Paul Selvadhas are both drivers associated with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and have been deployed in Islamabad on deputation. They were handed over to Indian High Commission officers in Islamabad hours after the Pakistan Charge d’Affaires (CDA) in India and acting high commissioner, Syed Haider Shah, was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and issued a demarche on their arrest.
“The two officials have been released and are now in the Indian High Commission,” a source in the Indian High Commission said.
It was not immediately clear what happens to the FIR registered by the Islamabad police against the duo. Sources said both the officials will undergo a medical check-up at the high commission and will then be debriefed.
The demarche to the Pakistan CDA, sources had said earlier in the evening, made it clear that “there should be no interrogation or harassment of the Indian officials”.
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Alarm sounded in the morning
The two officials were reported missing Monday morning after they did not reach their destination two hours after leaving the high commission on duty.
Sources had said at the time that both officials seemed to have been picked up by Pakistani security agencies as the movement of Indian vehicles and staff are always under the observation of Pakistani intelligence personnel.
However, Pakistani media subsequently reported that they had been arrested for an alleged hit-and-run.
The duo’s detention was widely seen as a tit-for-tat move by the Imran Khan-government. Two weeks ago, India had expelled two Pakistan High Commission officials — Abid Hussain and Muhammad Tahir — caught on espionage charges.
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