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Indo-Pak diplomatic row erupts New Delhi, November 9 However, Pakistan displayed a mature approach when it allowed, for the first time in history, an inspector of Delhi Police on the High Commission premises here for conducting investigations into the case. Informally, it is a suspicion of Pakistan that the boy was abducted by personnel of the Special Branch of Delhi Police, though Islamabad has chosen not to go on record with regard to this suspicion. Islamabad took up the matter with the Foreign Office here and the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and asked India to conduct an objective investigation into the circumstances leading to the abduction of Roshan Ali, son of Pakistani non-diplomatic staffer Asgar Ali, last evening. According to the Pakistani case, brought into the notice of the Indian Foreign Office, Roshan Ali, a student of Indian Institute of Information Technology here, was abducted by some unidentified men last evening. He was blindfolded and taken to a destination unknown to him where his hands were smeared with blood and his photographs were taken after making him stand beside some dead bodies. Later, a letter written in Hindi, was thrust into his pocket which warned him of dire consequences if he did not leave India within five days. His abductors dropped him at India Gate well past 2 am today. Soon after the incident, the Pakistan High Commission here and the Government of Pakistan in Islamabad lodged a strong protest with India on the issue. Indian Deputy High Commissioner in Islamabad TCA Raghavan was summoned to the Pakistan Foreign Office in Islamabad where he was apprised of the Pakistani concerns. Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner here, Mr Munnawar Bhatti, told The Tribune late tonight that Mr Raghavan expressed regrets over the incident and promised a fair probe into the matter. Significantly, Mr Bhatti added that the Pakistani side had not accused India of any wrongdoing and simply aired its grievances as it is the duty of the host country to look after the well-being of a foreign mission and its staff. Mr Bhatti confirmed that it was indeed the first time ever in the history of Indo-Pak relations when an Indian police inspector had been allowed entry inside the Pakistan High Commission for investigations into a criminal case. The police inspector remained with Roshan Ali for about half an hour.In response to a question on the incident, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesman said: “The alleged abduction of a dependent of an official of Pakistan High Commission has been brought to our attention. The matter is being investigated.” The MEA said the Pakistan High Commission informed Chanakyapuri police station of the missing boy around midnight and faxed note verbale to MEA at 0321 hrs. The police station immediately launched a search for the boy and alerted mobile police vans and made inquiries at hospitals. Today the matter was investigated by the police which discovered that the note in Hindi alleged to have been stuffed in Roshan Ali’s pocket was actually written the same day at NIIT by his colleague, an Indian student Rahul Sharma. Rahul Sharma has acknowledged that he wrote the note at Roshan Ali’s request and as dictated by him. According to Rahul Sharma, Roshan Ali said that he would use the note to scare some of his Pakistani friends. Rahul Sharma also stated that he accompanied Roshan Ali from NIIT to the South Extension Part I subway where they parted ways. According to the MEA the police investigation revealed that there was no report of any incident of the kind alleged by Roshan Ali outside NIIT around 1715 hours yesterday as an incident of this kind was unlikely to go unnoticed in an area like NIIT. The more interesting part of the MEA response is as follows: “It is also surprising that Pakistan High Commission faxed a note verbale to the Ministry at 0321 hrs on 9 November stating that Roshan Ali was still to return when according to their own admission, he had reached the Mission at 0230 hrs...Rahul Sharma’s statement and the absence of any corroborative report on the alleged abduction clearly establishes that Roshan Ali’s story is fabricated. The rush to publicise the allegation in the media in Pakistan is an unfortunate attempt to sensationalise it without proper investigation.”  |
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