No one who watches developments in Pakistan can be surprised that an Indian diplomat in Islamabad should have been waylaid, blindfolded, taken first to a police station and then somewhere else, badly beaten, denied access to his embassy for hours and then dumped at his residence well after midnight. Darkness has descended on that country since General Zia-ul-Haq seized power in the summer of 1977 and anything can happen to anyone there. Some months ago two French diplomats were beaten up by men who clearly belonged to some kind of intelligence or security set-up. More recently American diplomats were forced to remain in a security vault for over six hours as fire was destroying the embassy building beneath it. The US ambassador contacted the Pakistani officials and asked for help. But it did not arrive for over six hours. In another hour or so they would have roasted alive. On the surface, there is no connection between these incidents. In reality there is, especially between the beating up of the Indian and the French diplomats. The Frenchmen were alleged to be prying in the vicinity of the secret nuclear installations and the Indian to be receiving classified information from a Pakistan national. The true link is, however, deeper still – xenophobia which President Zia and his cohorts are deliberately promoting and exploiting. And, as in the case of Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia and Mao’s China, xenophobia in Pakistan is accompanied by extremely harsh treatment of political opponents and dissidents at home – flogging, imprisonment without trial and savage sentences following summary trials by military courts as in the case of Mr. Salamat Ali, correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review, Hong Kong.
The charge of espionage against the Indian diplomat by officially controlled newspapers in Pakistan appears to be unfounded. But supposing it was true, it would not justify and legitimise the brutal behaviour towards him. In such cases the host government either declares the diplomat concerned persona non grata and asks him to leave or quietly requests the other government to withdraw him. India has done so in respect of several diplomats, including a number of Pakistani diplomats. Apparently, Islamabad does not accept these norms of international behaviour. What then are we to do? New Delhi has lodged a strong protest with the Pakistan government. This will not do. Islamabad is not impressed by such protests and will not heed India’s unless it is forced to recognise that it will not be allowed to get away with such assaults. This country cannot pay Pakistan back in the same coin. And while it can expel a Pakistani diplomat of a rank similar to that of the Indian beaten up in Islamabad, that is not likely to cause much concern to General Zia. But he is likely to sit up if he knows that New Delhi regards the beating of its diplomat as a hostile act and a barrier in the path of normal relations.
The Times of India, 11 December 1979