Bonhomie disappears in just 24 hours?

NEW DELHI: That India-Pakistan relations remain precariously balanced, despite the bonhomie witnessed during the Manmohan Singh-Yousaf Gilani meeting in Mohali, was made evident again with Pakistan detaining an official of the Indian high commission in Islamabad within 24 hours of Gilani’s departure from India.
The official was released on Friday evening, after almost a full day, only after foreign secretary Nirupama Rao called up her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir demanding that he be released immediately.
The Indian official’s detention is said to be Islamabad’s reaction to the detention of a Pakistan high commission driver by Indian authorities after he was found loitering in the restricted cantonment area near Chandigarh airport. Pakistan retaliated by detaining an Indian official of much higher rank.
It was not immediately clear what sort of treatment the Indian official had been subjected to while in confinement. An assistant with the consular wing, he mysteriously went missing while returning home from the Indian high commission in Islamabad on Thursday. The high commission came to know about his detention only through a media report in Pakistan as there was no official confirmation.
The Pakistan high commission driver was held on Wednesday while Singh and Gilani were watching the India-Pakistan semifinal. As he had tried to flee after having been spotted, security agencies questioned him at length about his motive in entering the prohibited area. It is learnt that his movements were being scrutinized even earlier for suspicious activities. The fact that he was merely a driver did not deter Pakistan from detaining an Indian official of much higher rank.
The driver tried to escape but was caught after a brief chase. “He tried to escape and in process sustained minor injuries on his knees and back. He was questioned and released the next day,’’ said a source, adding that there was also a medical check-up carried out on him and he seemed to be in good health. He was handed over to the Pakistan high commission.
The Pakistanis, however, retaliated the same evening and detained the Indian official. Sources said the matter had to be kept under wraps so as not to create a furore at a time when the two PM’s were watching the Mohali match. They said this had helped avert a diplomatic stand-off between the two countries.