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Pakistan calls back High Commissioner in India, Sohail Mahmood, for ‘consultations’

Sohail Mahmood, Pakistan High Commissioner to India, was called back by Islamabad amid heightened bilateral tensions between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack.

Pakistan calls back High Commissioner in India, Sohail Mahmood, for ‘consultations’

(Photo: IANS)

Sohail Mahmood, Pakistan High Commissioner to India, was called back by Islamabad amid heightened bilateral tensions between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack.

Mahmood was called back for “consultations” on Monday. He was on Friday, 15 February, summoned by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, who lodged strong protest over the killing of 44 CRPF soldiers in the suicide terror attack in Pulwama.

In a tweet posted on Monday, Dr Mohammad Faisal, spokesperson of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), said, “We have called back our High Commissioner in India for consultations. He left New Delhi this morning.”

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Pakistan’s decision comes days after India called back its High Commissioner to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, to New Delhi for urgent consultations.

Also among the first steps that New Delhi initiated against Islamabad following the terror attacks was the withdrawal of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status granted to Pakistan in 1996.

Read More: India initiates steps to avenge Pulwama killings, summons Pakistan High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood

India has blamed Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror group for the Pulwama terror attack on Thursday.

Pakistan has rejected India’s assertions that JeM terrorists had carried out the 14 February attack on the CRPF convoy.

More than 2,500 CRPF personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Latoomode in Awantipora in south Kashmir around 3.15 pm.

The suicide bomber was identified as Adil Ahmed, who officials said joined the terror outfit in 2018.

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