Indian envoy’s home burgled in Islamabad

Official sources hint at the Pakistani government’s complicity in the incident, reports Nilova Roy Chaudhury.

In the middle of the emergency in Pakistan, the Indian high commissioner’s high-security residence in Islamabad was broken into, officials said on Wednesday. India’s envoy to Pakistan Satyabrata Pal was not in Islamabad when the break-in occurred on Monday night.

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Official sources hinted at the Pakistani government’s complicity in the incident and said that such an incident has never occurred at the high commissioner’s residence in the past. The house is located in such a secure area that “not even a flea can enter unnoticed,” an official said.

According to G. Parthasarathy, former Indian envoy to Pakistan: “I find it rather strange that with police guards posted outside the house round the clock and ISI surveillance personnel constantly checking visitors, the Indian high commissioner’s residence can be broken into.”

Clearly implicating Pakistan’s security agencies for the break-in, Parthasarathy said, “The ISI’s methods are so crude, whether it is dealing with the chief justice or with personnel of the Indian High Commission, that I would be surprised if they did not do something this ham-handed.”

Officials refused comment on whether anything had gone missing or was stolen during the break-in. “A strong protest has been lodged with the Government of Pakistan in Islamabad and with the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Navtej Sarna said in a statement.