India and Pakistan's envoys return home

Diplomats from both sides had to travel over land

India and Pakistan's senior diplomats in each other's countries have returned home after being ordered to leave in a dispute over the funding of Kashmiri separatists.

Prime Minister Vajpayee: Pakistan backing terrorism

Both envoys have had to make a 12-hour overland journey as flights between the two nuclear-capable powers are suspended.

Sudhir Vyas, India's acting high commissioner in Islamabad, crossed the border at Wagah in Punjab and was received by senior Indian officials.

As relations between the two countries took another turn for the worse, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee accused Pakistan of "double standards" over the issue of terrorism.

Spying accusations

India's acting high commissioner in Islamabad, Sudhir Vyas, left the Pakistani capital early on Monday, together with four other Indian officials, who were also ordered out.

Pakistan accused the men of "actions unbecoming their status", the diplomatic phrase used for spying.

India accuses Pakistan of stoking unrest in Kashmir

His expulsion was in retaliation for India's decision on Saturday to expel the Pakistani acting high commissioner in Delhi, Jalil Abbas Jilani.

India accuses Mr Jilani of funnelling thousands of dollars to militants in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Mr Jilani says the charge is a "crude attempt to harass and intimidate the Pakistan High Commission officials".

Mr Jilani has been in the post since the two countries withdrew their high commissioners after an attack in December 2001 on the Indian parliament.

India says that attack was carried out by Pakistani-based militants supported by the Pakistan Government.

'Double standards'

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told a conference in Delhi on Monday that Pakistan had been trying to justify its actions by making a distinction between terrorist acts and freedom struggles.

This was "dubious logic" and amounted to "double standards," according to Mr Vajpayee.

This latest diplomatic row started after Indian police on Thursday arrested two activists from the separatist organisation Hurriyat on charges of financing militants.

The police said one of them had been given money by Mr Jilani.

In Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, the authorities accused Indian forces of wounding at least seven people, including two women and a child, in shelling from across the Line of Control between Pakistan and India.