The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. India will expel a Pakistani visa official for "espionage activities," the Foreign Ministry said. In a tit-for-tat gesture, Pakistan also declared an official at the Indian Embassy in Islamabad persona non grata. (Prakash Singh/AFP via Getty Images)

India accused a staff member at Pakistan’s embassy in New Delhi on Thursday of engaging in spying activities and ordered his expulsion, deepening tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Indian police said they busted a spy racket run by Mehmood Akhtar, a Pakistani national who worked in the visa section of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. Akhtar, police said, was caught Wednesday receiving military documents from two Indian citizens.

Police said in a statement that they seized from him “vital information, documents related to deployment of army and paramilitary forces” along the India-Pakistan border, that has “serious implications on national security.”

Akhtar has been declared “persona non grata for espionage activities,” tweeted Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry.

In a tit-for-tat gesture, Pakistan also declared an official at the Indian Embassy in Islamabad persona non grata.

In a statement late Thursday, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern about the activities of an Indian official named Surjeet Singh, accusing him of violating “established diplomatic norms.”

It ordered Singh and his family to leave the country by Saturday.

The incident comes amid growing hostility between the two nations after alleged Pakistani militants attacked an Indian army base near the border last month, prompting retaliation.

Since their independence from Britain more than 65 years ago, the two countries have fought three wars. Relations warmed slightly after Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014 and met his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, in a surprise visit last year. But with the recent border clashes, ties have soured.

Indian film producers have banned Pakistani artists from performing in their movies, the Indian cricket board earlier barred Pakistani players from participating in a league, and a recent high-profile summit of South Asian leaders in Pakistan was canceled. The two countries exchanged heavy mortar fire along the border this week.

Police arrested the two Indian citizens who they said were part of the spy ring and are on the lookout for a few more.

“The spy module was active for 18 months, and on an average they used to meet once a month,” Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of Delhi police, told reporters. “The meetings usually took place in tourist spots, either in the old city or near the zoo.”

On Wednesday, plainclothes officers were deployed around the zoo ahead of a scheduled meeting and detained Akhtar and two other men, police said.

“At first Akhtar said he is an Indian citizen and produced a biometric identity card with a local address,” Yadav said. “After sustained interrogation, we found that it was a forged card and that he began working in the Pakistan High Commission in India 2½ years ago.”

Akhtar was released from detention after he claimed diplomatic immunity.

Yadav said Akhtar’s work in the embassy visa section gave him access to “ordinary Indians,” helping him “identify potential recruits and induce those who were poor to help Pakistan.”

A statement by the Pakistan High Commission “strongly rejected and denied” the accusations and protested the “detention and manhandling” of Akhtar. It asked the Indian government “to ensure that such harassment should not happen in the future.”

The Indian action is trying to “shrink the diplomatic space for the working of the Pakistan High Commission,” the statement added.

Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report.

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