India on Tuesday declared an official working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi as persona non grata for allegedly indulging in actions “not in keeping with his official status”.

In a press release, India’s Ministry of External Affairs stated that the official had been asked to leave the country within 24 hours. The ministry did not identify the official.

In diplomatic parlance, a persona non-grata is a foreign diplomat or staff who is deemed unwelcome by the host country.

The development came three days after India and Pakistan reached an “understanding” to halt firing following a four-day conflict.

Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad had escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

The Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 22 Indian civilians and seven defence personnel were killed.

A day after the Pahalgam attack, India declared Pakistan’s defence, military, naval and air advisers in New Delhi persona non grata and said it would withdraw its defence advisers from Islamabad.

India had also suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, and said it would remain in abeyance until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably” stopped its support for cross-border terrorism.

India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 with the World Bank as an additional signatory.