Pakistan reaction subdued to India's ousting of envoy
May 18, 2002 Posted: 1:15 PM EDT (1715 GMT)
Indian Minister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh announces that India has asked the Pakistani envoy to leave.
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Staff and wires
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- In a low-key statement that seemed aimed at defusing a diplomatic row, Pakistan said it 'noted with disappointment' India's decision to ask Pakistan's top envoy to New Delhi to leave India.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said it would recall High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, but would continue to work to normalize relations between the two nations.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that rather than expelling Qazi, India had asked Pakistan to recall him.
Pakistani Information Minister Nisar Memon told CNN from Karachi that his government would not retaliate for the move, and called for dialogue.
Tensions between the two nuclear powers have increased after an attack on an Indian army camp Tuesday killed 31 people, including the wives and children of Indian soldiers.
The announcement by India's minister for external affairs came after a high-level security meeting to discuss how to respond to the escalating tensions with Pakistan.
"For the sake of parity of representation between the two countries, the high commissioner of Pakistan who is currently in India will be required to returned to Islamabad," Jaswant Singh said.
In his reference to "parity of representation," Singh referred to the recall of India's high commissioner to Islamabad in December, after India blamed Pakistani-based Muslim militants for a deadly attack on India's Parliament.
Meanwhile, in the Kashmiri town of Pattan, two members of the Indian paramilitary forces were gunned down Saturday in a market, Indian police sources told CNN.
The sources said militants opened fire on the soldiers from close range and escaped. One soldier died at the scene and another died while being transported to a hospital.
Police cordoned off the market and were searching for the suspects.
Fighting continued along the line of control that divides Kashmir into territories that are administered by India and by Pakistan.
Indian sources said one person was killed and six others were wounded in heavy border shelling in northern Kashmir, and shelling continued late Saturday afternoon in various sectors in northern Kashmir.
The Pakistani military on Saturday said two people were killed and 15 injured along the line of control after what it called intense firing and shelling by the Indian army.
More than a dozen Islamic groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India since the militant insurgency began in 1989.
Since the mid-December attack on India's Parliament, India and Pakistan have massed several hundred thousand troops along their border.
India accuses Islamabad of arming and training Pakistan-based militant groups but Pakistan denies the charges, saying it only provides moral and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists.
CNN Correspondent Jane Arraf contributed to this report.
