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Detained Indian embassy staffer released

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities on Monday released an Indian High Commission employee they had arrested the previous night and accused of carrying a "remote control explosive device", an Indian embassy official said.

Sudhir Vyas, acting Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad, told Reuters that P. Moses, a clerk at the high commission, was released early on Monday morning after being kept in "illegal detention" at a local police station.

Pakistani police said Moses was arrested on Sunday night while he was carrying a remote control explosive device and a sum of money in a taxi.

Vyas said Moses was subjected to "ill-treatment and mental torture" at the police station and that a strong protest had been lodged with the Pakistani government.

The incident comes amid heightened tension between arch-rivals Pakistan and India , locked in a war of words after the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane last month.

Relations between the nuclear rivals worsened after New Delhi accused Islamabad of being involved in the eight-day hijacking that ended on December 31.

On Sunday, Islamabad rejected the latest Indian accusation of involvement, saying New Delhi's allegations were "baseless".

New Delhi said that the five hijackers were in Pakistan and that Islamabad should arrest and hand them over to India.

The masked hijackers have not been seen in public since they released the 155 hostages on the aircraft in exchange for three militants freed from Indian jails.-Reuters