India has decided to expel Pakistani High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi following a bloody militant attack in Kashmir this week, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said today.
Following a meeting of the top-level Cabinet Committee on Security, Singh said the government had agreed that "the Pakistani high commissioner be required to return to Pakistan".
He said the move would "maintain parity" after the Indian high commissioner to Pakistan was withdrawn by New Delhi in December. The ambassador was recalled after a deadly attack on the parliament in New Delhi, which India blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups.
On Tuesday three militants attacked a bus and the residential quarters of a military base near Jammu in Indian Kashmir, killing 35 people, mostly women and children, before being gunned down by security forces. India has identified the three attackers as being Pakistanis.
AFP