Background: India and Pakistan yesterday (August 12) completed the exchange of their High Commission staffs after three months of diplomatic manoeuvres. Both High Commissions have been closed since Bangla Desh fighters seized the Pakistan High Commission in calcutta on April 26. It has remained in their hands ever since, although the Pakistan staff have been allowed to stay there.

Yesterday's repatriation, involving 287 members of both countrys' delegations, was organised by the Swiss mediators. The exchange took place by airlifts aboard Swiss and Iranian aircraft.

SYNOPSIS: India and Pakistan exchanged their High Commission staffs in a repatriation airlift on Thursday. The airlift, which was organised by Swiss mediators, involved a total of 287 diplomatic staff who were repatriated to their home countries in Iranian and Swiss aircraft. Each nation's High Commission to the other has been closed since April, when Bangla desh fighters seized the Pakistan High Commission in Calcutta. At New Delhi airport, thirty Pakistani diplomate and their staff left for Dacca in an Iranian airliner. Some of the staff, mainly these from East Pakistan, asked to be allowed to stay in India.

At the same time, two-hundred-and fifty-seven Indian diplomas and their families and staff arrived in New Delhi from Dacca in a Swiss aircraft. The Swiss Ambassador to India, Dr. August Lindt, was waiting to greet them with the wife of his Deputy Ambassador, Dr, Sengupta, who arrived from Dacca with the Indian diplomats and led them off the aircraft.

An ambulance was there greet one of the Indian diplomats, who we ill. A second aircraft of High Commission staff arrived a short while later, completing the exchange with the Pakistan diplomats -- who were on their way to Dacca by this time. PAUSE. The repatriation took three months of diplomatic manoeuvering to organise.