'Expulsions of diplomats bad omen for Indo-Pak peace process'

Pakistan on Saturday ordered Indian diplomat Deepak Kaul to leave the country for suspected spying and India reciprocated within hours by expelling an official from Islamabad's embassy in New Delhi.

Pakistani foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said Kaul, councillor at the Indian High Commission (embassy) in Islamabad, was "caught indulging in practices incompatible to his status."

He was declared persona non grata, or an unwanted person in diplomatic language, and told to leave the country within 48 hours.

India lodged a protest and within hours announced the expulsion of Pakistani diplomat Sayed Mohammed Rafiq Ahmed, who held the rank of councillor at the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi.

India gave no reason for Ahmed's expulsion. The rivals last expelled diplomats in February 2003.

Analysts said the developments were a bad sign for the fledgling peace process started in 2004 between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals who have fought three wars and returned from the brink of a nuclear conflict in 2002.

"Expulsions of diplomats after nearly three-and-a-half years is definitely a setback," political analyst Mohammaed Afzal Niazi told AFP.