India Expels Employee of Pakistan Embassy

With warlike tensions building along the border, India ordered an employee of the Pakistani Embassy expelled Monday for allegedly trying to obtain classified documents on India’s defense.

The order came as both countries beefed up forces along the border amid strained ties stemming from the Dec. 13 suicide attack on India’s Parliament. Though skirmishes are common along the border, the intensity of gun battles and artillery shelling has increased.

The high tensions are worrisome in the region because India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since 1947, have each developed nuclear arms in recent years.

India, which recalled its ambassador to Pakistan on Friday, accuses Pakistan’s government of responsibility for the attack on Parliament by allowing Islamic extremists to operate from its territory. Pakistan denies that and says India has provided no proof of involvement by Pakistanis.

The Indian Foreign Ministry said the employee of the Pakistani Embassy, Mohammed Sharif Khan, was caught Sunday by police as he received a bag of documents containing sensitive information from an Indian official.

Khan was given a week to leave India, said Nirupama Rao, a ministry spokeswoman.

Pakistan rejected the charges against Khan. “These absurd Indian allegations represent yet another desperate attempt to implicate Pakistan in the Dec. 13 terrorist attack,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said, quoting from a statement by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

Indian police arrested Ajay Kumar, an official in the Parliament secretariat, as the man who allegedly handed Khan the bag of documents.