Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday sentenced Indian spy Kalbushan Yadav to death.
Indian RAW Agent / Naval officer 41558Z Commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016 through a Counter Intelligence Operation from Mashkel, Balochistan, for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded death sentence. Today COAS, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM, reported The Express Tribune on Monday.
RAW agent Commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav was tried by FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of official Secret Act of 1923. FGCM found Kulbushan Sudhir Yadhav guilty of all the charges. He confessed before a Magistrate and the Court that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organize espionage / sabotage activities aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi.
The accused was provided with defending officer as per legal provisions.
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Yadav, a serving Indian Navy officer, was arrested from Balochistan in March last year. He later confessed that he was working for the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to create instability in Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan and Karachi.
Pakistan believes that India is using covert means to foment violence in the country with an aim to undermine the multibillion dollar one belt, one road initiative of China. The recent surge in terrorist attacks in the country has once again brought the India intelligence agencies role in backing the terrorism in Pakistan to the spotlight.
Security officials claim that RAW was using certain militant outfits operating out of Afghanistan to carryout terrorist attacks in the country. The current Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is considered to be the architect of this policy called offensive defensive that advocates a policy of supporting proxies to create trouble inside Pakistan.
India summons Pak
Reacting strongly, India on Monday said it will regard as “premeditated murder” if Pakistan carries out the death sentence, awarded to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav “without observing basic norms of law and justice”.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a strongly-worded demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav were “farcical” as there were no “credible evidence” against him.
Reacting to a press release by Pakistan military’s media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Jadhav, India said he was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly.
India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, the demarche said.
“This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities,” it said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are “farcical in the absence of any credible evidence” against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
“Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
“If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder,” the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
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