India expels Pakistani visa official for 'espionage' as tensions run highNew Delhi, India -- India announced Thursday it was expelling a Pakistani visa official for suspected spying after he was briefly detained carrying sensitive defense documents, with tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors already running high. "Delhi police crime branch has busted an espionage racket run by a kingpin working in the Pakistan high commission," said Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police on crime. India's foreign secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar summoned Pakistan's high commissioner to inform him of the decision to expel the official within 48 hours. "FS (foreign secretary) summons Pak High Commissioner to convey that Pak High Commission staffer has been declared persona non grata for espionage activities," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said on Twitter. Pakistan's High Commissioner Abdul Basit lodged a "strong protest" on Thursday with the Indian foreign ministry and said the detention of the official contravened diplomatic conventions, a Pakistani diplomatic source said.

Source: The China Post October 27, 2016 16:10 UTC