Two more Indian High Commission staffers leave Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Two more staffers of the Indian High Commission on Thursday left Pakistan, after being declared 'persona non grata' for spying for the neighbouring arch-rival, diplomatic sources told Geo News.

The two staffers turned out to be officials of India's Intelligence Bureau (IB), diplomatic sources said. They included First Secretary Press Balbir Singh and Jiabalan Sainthal.

Singh was reportedly the Indian IB's station chief while Sainthal too was a member of the same agency, guised as staff officer.

The two officials left for India in wee hours of Thursday from Islamabad airport through a foreign flight.

Earlier on November 8, three out of seven Indian High Commission officials, declared persona non grata by Pakistan, had left for home. They included First Secretary Commercial Anurag Singh, Vijay Kumar Varma and Mandhawan Nanda Kumar.

Pakistan had ordered expulsion of the eight Indian High Commission officials from Pakistan on charges of spying.

The remaining three officials of the Indian High Commission are also expected to leave Pakistan this morning through the Wagah border crossing.

On November 2, Pakistani authorities had claimed to have uncovered a spy network of Indian diplomats, who were said to be involved in activities to destabilise Pakistan by facilitating and funding terrorism.

A history of spying

Prior to this a number of Indian spies have been spotted and arrested in Pakistan during the course of the country's enmity with its neighbour.

Earlier this year Kulbhushan Yadav, a serving Indian navy officer, was arrested from Balochistan while spying for RAW.

Another high-profile Indian spy caught in Pakistan was Ravindra Kaushik (1952–1999), who was sent across the border in 1975 on a mission after extensive training in Delhi for two years. He had kept on passing valuable information to RAW from 1979 to 1983.

In September 1983, Indian intelligence agencies had sent a low-level operative, Inayat Masih, to get in touch with Kaushik. But the agent was caught by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and had revealed Kaushik's true identity during probe.