New Delhi: India has declared Pakistan a "No School-Going Mission" and asked staff members at the High Commission in Islamabad to either return or send their school-going children back home.
Schools in Islamabad are shut now for summer vacations but will re-open next month. A number of staff who have young children have already sent their kids back.
The decision has sent shock waves in both Indian and Pakistani diplomatic circles with many fearing this would further strain the already-fraught relations between both countries.
There has been a steady escalation of verbal attacks between New Delhi and Islamabad in the aftermath of the Kashmir unrest after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.
Around 60 Indian children of High Commission staff study in Islamabad, a large majority of them at the American School. About 10 students study at the Roots International School.
The last time this was done was after the Parliament attack in 2001 and the preceding Operation Parakram. Downgrading a mission to ‘no-school going’ is a sign of heightened security risk in that country or of possible skirmishes between the countries concerned. It is important To note that even in the aftermath of the 26/11 attacks there was no such order to withdraw children of High Commission staff.
CNN-News 18 has learnt that this decision was taken by MEA in June 2015 and adequate time was given all students and their parents to find admissions for the new academic session in 2016. The decision was in-principle taken after the attack on children at the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014. Since then, Indian officials have been worried about the security of their staff in Pakistan and their families.
An MEA statement said: "It is a normal practice for all countries to review staffing and related policies for their diplomatic missions, including in view of prevailing circumstances at those stations. With effect from this academic session, officials posted in the High Commission of India in Islamabad have been advised to make arrangements for education of their wards outside Pakistan, till further notice."
If this path of escalation were to continue, then this would mean Pakistan will reciprocate by recalling the children of its staff in the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. The logical next step would be to downgrade the number of staff working in each other’s mission, keeping only essential staff and a final step would be the recall of each other’s High Commissioners.
Both countries have through these various levels of escalation, both after the Parliament attack in 2001, as was pointed earlier in this article, and also during each one of the four wars both countries have fought since independence.
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