Pakistan is facing so grave multiple crises that political leaders and media have ignored many important issues and matters. In this regard, Indian Spy Kulbushan Jadhav’s case also needs attention to keep it in the limelight.
Kulbushan Jadhav, alias Hussain Mubarek Patel, is an Indian spy (terrorist) who was apprehended on March 3, 2016 during a counter-intelligence operation from Mashkel, Balochistan province, while he was travelling to Pakistan on an Iranian passport.
A serving Indian Navy officer Jadhav was involved in espionage, acts of terrorism, and sabotage against the state of Pakistan, especially in the Balochistan. His cynical activities cost Pakistan thousands of lives and hence he was awarded death sentence in April 2017 by the Field General Court Martial (FGCM).
Yadhav joined the Indian National Defence Academy in 1987 and was commissioned in the engineering branch of the Indian Navy in 1991. During his service years, he was promoted to the rank of Naval Commander.
Notably, in a video statement, Kulbhushan openly admitted that he was the serving agent of Indian secret agency RAW in Balochistan, and during his stay, he contacted various Baloch separatist leaders and insurgents, including Dr Allah Nazar Baloch to execute the task to damage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project (CPEC). He confessed that he spied for India and was “assigned with the task to create unrest in Karachi and Balolchitan…to destabilize Pakistan.”
In this context, addressing a joint press conference with the then Federal Minister for Information Pervaiz Rasheed, the then Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa said on March 29, 2016: “Kulbushan Yadav’s arrest is a rare case that does not happen very often.” He pointed out that Yadav was an active officer of the Indian Navy prior to his joining RAW. He also served as a scrap dealer and had a jewelry business in Chahbahar, Iran, after he joined RAW in 2013.
During interrogation, Jadhav revealed that at Wadh, Khuzdar, he was in contact with Haji Baloch whom he provided financial and logistic support including separatists and the Islamic State network in Karachi.
During interrogation, Jadhav revealed that at Wadh, Khuzdar, he was in contact with Haji Baloch whom he provided financial and logistic support including separatists and the Islamic State network in Karachi.
He elaborated that his job was to hold meetings with Baloch insurgents and collaborate with them to carryout terrorist activities, leading to the killing or maiming of thousands Pakistani citizens.
Jadhav disclosed that he had met Haji Baloch several times, sometimes for planning sectarian violence in Karachi and the rest of Sindh province. He also told that the masterminds of the Safoora bus attack, where gunmen shot dead 45 Ismaili passengers, were also in contact with Haji Baloch.
While, upon information provided by Jadhav, Pakistan’s intelligence agencies arrested hundreds of undercover operatives, working to sabotage peace in Pakistan, saving thousands of innocent lives from potential harm.
Meanwhile, the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced its verdict about the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav. In its judgment, ICJ President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf stated that Pakistan should review the case, while considering, under the laws of Pakistan. The Court, however, rejected all other remedies sought by India, which included the annulment of the military court decision convicting Jadhav, restricting Pakistan from executing the sentence, securing Jadhav’s release and ordering his return to India. Therefore, Islamabad was given options—somehow an appeal should lie before the civilian courts in this case.
On April 10, 2017, Pakistan’s Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa had endorsed the death penalty for Jadhav. In June 2017, the Indian spy had filed a mercy petition against the death penalty, in which he again confessed to his involvement in terrorist activities in Pakistan.
However, before Pakistani authorities could make a final decision, the ICJ, after being approached by New Delhi, had ordered a stay in his execution through an interim order.
On July 17, 2019, after a petition lodged by India, the International Court of Justice ordered Pakistan to allow Jadhav full and unimpeded consular access to Indian officials.
And the Foreign Office (FO) on July 18, 2019 announced: “As a responsible state, Pakistan will grant consular access to Commander Kulbushan Jadhav according to Pakistani laws, for which modalities are being worked out” with India.
Nevertheless, Islamabad on September 2, 2019 provided Jadhav an “unimpeded, uninterrupted and recorded” consular access in line with the international legal norms and commitments. But, New Delhi fumed in anger and frustration after its convicted spy Jadhav supported Pakistan’s stance during his meeting with top Indian diplomat in Islamabad. Besides, showing optimistic approach on humanitarian ground, Pakistan had also allowed mother and wife of Indian convicted spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to meet him. They visited Pakistan on December 25, 2017 and met him at the office of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.
It is mentionable that in their self-created arguments, India’s lawyers had told the ICJ that the case was “farcical” and based on “malicious propaganda”. Pakistan’s lawyers hit back by accusing Jadhav of “terrorism”. Pakistan’s attorney general stated that Jadhav’s “unlawful activities were directed at creating anarchy in Pakistan and particularly targeted the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor”.
While challenging his sentence in the ICJ, India had fabricated the story which also claimed that the spy Kulbhushan Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy.
In fact, Yadhav was running a network of terror from Iran to sponsor terrorism in Pakistan, and was in collusion with terrorist outfits such as BLA, BRA, MQM (militant wing), TTP, LeJ, and Daish (ISIL). Many of these groups have conducted a number of terrorist related assaults in Pakistan, Iran Afghanistan including some other countries of South Asia.
Nonetheless, Yadhav remains a living proof of Indian hostility and state-sponsored terrorism against Pakistan. The world must take notice of Indian inimical designs and policy of aggression against its neighbours.
Although in the remote past and in the recent past, various agents of RAW were captured in Pakistan, yet the case of Kulbushan Yadav has exposed the real face of India’s ruthless terrorism, while New Delhi has, openly, been trying to save Kulbushan from the execution.
We can conclude undoubtedly that Indian role in Pakistan became naked after the arrest of Kulbhushan Yadav, and his confession clearly proved that Indian RAW has a well-organized espionage system in Pakistan.
