Posted on 05/18/2002 3:22:00 AM PDT by Bad~Rodeo
NEW DELHI, India (AP) - India said it was expelling Pakistan's ambassador Saturday, following a surge in border violence between the two nuclear-armed nations.
India's External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said that as New Delhi no longer had an ambassador in Islamabad, the Pakistani ambassador would have to leave.
"For the sake of parity of representation between the two countries, the high commissioner of Pakistan, (who) is currently in India, (will) be required to return to Islamabad," he told reporters.
India withdrew its ambassador from Pakistan in December, after a militant attack on India's Parliament in New Delhi. India blamed Pakistan for the attack, an allegation Pakistan denies. As tension rose, both countries slashed their diplomatic staff, halted over-flight rights for airplanes and ended train services.
Pakistan's high commissioner had remained in New Delhi.
The Indian government refused to meet with him, dealing instead with his No. 2.
Singh made the announcement after a high-level security meeting held by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his top Cabinet ministers, military and intelligence chiefs.
The meeting was called to discuss India's response to the latest Islamic militant attack in the northern state of Jammu-Kashmir.
India has said Pakistan is "directly responsible" for the Tuesday attack, in which 34 people, most of them the wives and children of soldiers, were killed in an assault on an army base.
Pakistan condemned the attack, but has said it supports the goals of Islamic militant groups fighting to separate the region from India.
After the Parliament attack, which India blamed on two Pakistan-based militant groups, both countries massed hundreds of thousands of soldiers on their frontier.
The two armies have engaged in intense cross-border firing since Friday, and thousands of villagers have fled the frontier region.
Border residents: Duck and Cover!
Polite way of saying, "Bend over and kiss your a$$ goodbye."
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