Accused by Pak of being spies, 3 High Commission officials leave for India

Islamabad: Three Indian High Commission officials out of the eight accused by Pakistan of being members of Indian intelligence agencies, left for India on Tuesday, according to a media report.

Geo News, quoting sources, reported that three officials -- First Secretary commercial Anurag Singh, Vijay Kumar Varma and Madhawan Nanda Kumar left for Dubai from Islamabad on a morning Emirates flight.

Five other Indian High Commission officials – Rajesh Kumar Agnihotri, Amerdeep Singh Bhatti, Dharmendra Sodhi, Balbir Singh and Jayabalan Senthil -- will leave for India via road through the Wagah border, the report said.

Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria last week had read out a statement at his weekly briefing saying that a number of Indian diplomats and staffers were involved in "coordinating terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistan under the garb of diplomatic assignments".

He had named the eight Indian officials, accusing them of being members of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB).

There was no official confirmation on how many Indian officials had left Pakistan and were expected to leave the country.

Last month, Pakistan had declared Indian High Commission official Surjeet Singh persona non-grata after India's action against Pakistan High Commission official Mehmood Akhtar following Indian police's busting of an ISI-run spy ring.

On November 2, Pakistan had pulled out six of its officials in the wake of the spy scandal.