Mirroring Islamabad, New Delhi Dismantles Installations Outside Pakistan High Commission

New Delhi: Indian authorities on the night of August 19 dismantled structures and queue-management barriers outside the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, three days after Pakistani authorities removed security barricades and parking poles outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, in an apparent tit-for-tat action.

A bulldozer was deployed late on August 19 to remove structures that extended from the Pakistan High Commission's premises onto the lane outside its compound. The action was carried out at night, with photographs and videos of the demolition emerging on this morning (August 20).

Visuals from outside the mission showed corrugated roofing sheets, metal frames, fencing, masonry and other debris strewn across the lane. The visa section itself remained intact, with service windows visible behind the damaged outer structure, including one marked “Window 1”.

Official sources said the structures removed in Delhi, including queue liners near the visa section, were located outside the Pakistani mission's approved boundary.

Breach in reciprocal trust

The action followed the removal on August 17 of security bollards and parking poles outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. Pakistani authorities had cited road expansion as the reason for removing the structures there, according to official sources.

The structures outside both missions had been in place for some time, despite being beyond the formally designated boundaries of the diplomatic compounds.

However, they were not removed as they were allowed on a reciprocal basis, which is the usual way diplomats function in both countries. 

The latest incident also has echoes of an earlier pattern of low-level reciprocal harassment involving the two countries' diplomatic missions. In 2018, India and Pakistan traded allegations of diplomats being tailed, cars being blocked, officials being filmed and harassed, and even doorbells being rung in the middle of the night. Indian officials in Islamabad also complained of electricity and water supplies being cut at a residential complex for the mission, while Pakistan alleged harassment of its diplomats and their families in Delhi. 

Ties between the two countries are currently at the lowest since independence, particularly following the April 2025 Pahalgam attack and the four-day military confrontation in May last year. India subsequently put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, restricted visas and reduced the diplomatic presence of both countries.

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