Abducted mission staffer in Pak back with bruises

The Indian mission informed New Delhi that the Islamabad police called them up, saying they could collect Khanna from the station. He was taken to the hospital in the diplomatic area.

MEA spokesperson Nirupama Rao said the police in Pakistan had refused to register a case, raising suspicion of the involvement of intelligence agencies. She said Khanna was taken away early morning in front of his his colleagues just as he was to board the bus ferrying mission employees to the High Commission.

Rao said the Indian Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad, Sudhir Vyas, and the External Affairs Ministry were in touch with Pakistani officials to find out about the whereabouts of Khanna.

Among those contacted were Pakistan’s Director General for South Asia Rashid Khan and Additional Secretary in the Pakistan Foreign Office Kamran Niaz.

Rao said the abduction was in gross violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention and the bilateral code of conduct agreed between India and Pakistan in August 1992 for the security of diplomatic and consular personnel.

She described the incident as a matter of serious concern. ‘‘We have strongly protested and taken it up both in Islamabad and here,’’ Rao said. Khanna, she said, ‘‘appears to have bruises all over his body and is having some difficulty swallowing’’.

The Pakistani authorities gave no satisfactory response on Khanna’s whereabouts and his condition for the whole deay.

He was picked up from the high-security area around the church where five people, including two Americans, were killed last month in a terrorist attack, Rao said, adding this ‘‘pointed to careful planning and execution and the involvement of the establishment’’

.. Asked whether this was a retaliation to the nabbing of Pakistan High Commission official Ali Abbas on Wednesday on charges of espionage, she said it is quite possible ‘‘if you go by the pattern of behaviour by Pakistan’’.