India-Pakistan tit-for-tat: Demolitions outside High Commissions in Delhi, Islamabad

The action comes at a time when India and Pakistan's ties are at a low point, following Operation Sindoor in May last year.

The authorities dismantled the external security perimeter outside the Pakistan High Commission.The authorities dismantled the external security perimeter outside the Pakistan High Commission (Photo: X/PTI).

India and Pakistan have demolished some temporary structures outside their respective High Commissions in New Delhi and Islamabad over the past three days, sources said Thursday.

According to sources in Delhi, the Pakistan authorities on Monday removed and demolished some of the barricades and structures to manage the queue outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. These structures, including parking poles, were primarily intended to manage queues for visitors and visa applicants, as well as their parking.

The Indian side had requested that the Pakistan side not do so, since these were essential for managing the crowd and visitors to the High Commission. But the Pakistani authorities did not heed the request and carried out the demolition and removal of those structures.

On Wednesday, the Indian side carried out a similar activity outside the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi’s Chanakyapuri area. A section of structures outside the Pakistan High Commission was demolished.

The action was carried out by the agencies concerned using a JCB machine, which removed the structures and barricades erected along the lane outside the compound, including queue-management installations near the visa section, the sources said.

Visuals showed that the demolition left a trail of rubble outside the mission, with broken metal railings and gates, twisted metal frames, roofing sheets, bricks and chunks of concrete and plaster strewn across the paved area.

The visa section remained visible amid the debris, with service windows marked “Window 1”, “Pakistani Passport Only” and “Window-5 / Collection of Visa Applications”. Broken fencing and construction material were also seen lying around the counters.

This tit-for-tat action comes at a time when the ties between India and Pakistan are at a low point, after the military confrontation under Operation Sindoor took place in May last year, following the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year.

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The High Commissions of the two countries have been functioning in each other’s countries at the level of the Chargé d’affaires for the last seven years. The diplomatic strength has been vastly reduced, and visa services have been almost closed, except for some pilgrims to each other’s side.

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 27 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting and writing explainers and analysis on foreign affairs for about 19 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He won the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award, 2023, for the second time for his reporting of the Oct 7 attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

 

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