Kulbhushan Yadhav (Indian Navy Officer Aressted by Pakistan)

 

Kulbhushan Yadhav  (Indian Navy Officer  Aressted by Pakistan)

                           

     Kulbhushan Jadhav is an Indian national who is on the death row in Pakistan. He is accused of carrying out espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan at the behest of India's intelligence agency. India has denied the allegations. Pakistan claims the former Indian Navy officer was arrested on March 3, 2016 in Balochistan. The Indian side, however, maintains that he was kidnapped from Iran, where he was running a business in the port city of Chabahar after a “premature retirement” from the Navy .

       Kulbhushan Yadav was born on 16 April 1970 and he is a retired Indian national who had served Indian navy between 1987 to 2001. Kulbhushan is in the custody of Pakistan since March 3, 2016. Pakistan claims that jadhav was spreading terrorism in the Balochistan province of Pakistan and spying for India's intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) .

        India claims that Kulbhushan Jadhav is a retired Indian Navy commander who took premature retirement and doing his business in Iran. He was abducted by the Pakistan and deliberately trapped in the spying case .

 According Pakistan government :-

      Jadhav said he had commenced intelligence operations in 2003, and established a business in Chahbahar, Iran, where he was able to go undetected and visit Karachi in 2003 and 2004 . He was picked up by Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing at the end of 2013, and has been directing various subversive activities in Karachi and Balochistan . His job, he said, was to hold meetings with Baloch insurgents and collaborate with them to carry out activities "of a criminal nature, leading to the killing or maiming of Pakistani citizens ." Jadhav, in pursuit of targets set by his RAW handlers, was arrested by Pakistani authorities on March 3, 2016, when he attempted to cross over into the country from the Saravan border in Iran . Indian intelligence officials suspected that Jadhav's phone was under surveillance by the Pakistani intelligence, and that his habits and mannerisms, including phone calls in Marathi to his family, gave away his identity .

                        

 

           On 17 July 2019, the court rejected India's appeal for Jadhav's release and ordered Pakistan to suspend the execution. It ruled that Pakistan will have to review the entire process of trial and conviction of Kulbhushan Jadhav and provide India with consular access .

     On 3 April, it was reported that Iran was investigating whether Jadhav crossed the Pakistan-Iran border illegally after the matter was taken up by Pakistani officials in Hassan Rouhani's visit to Islamabad .

                       

        On 10 April 2017, Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Field General Court Martial (FGCM) in Pakistan, following a confession before the magistrate and court . Jadhav's trial lasted three and a half months and the charges he was convicted for included spying for India, waging war against Pakistan, sponsoring terrorism, and destabilising the state . He was tried in a military court due to his naval background and the sensitive nature of his case, involving espionage and sabotage . The sentence was confirmed by army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, and released via the ISPR . Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif stated that under the provisions of the Pakistan Army Act of 1952, Jadhav had the right to appeal against his conviction on three appellate forums within 40 days .  the government of India summoned Pakistani High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit and issued a demarche stating that the proceedings that led to Jadhav's sentencing were farcical and that India would regard Jadhav's execution as murder in the first degree . Basit replied to the Indian foreign secretary that "on the one hand you perpetrate terrorism in Pakistan, and record a protest against us on the other. We have not done anything wrong. A terrorist must be punished .

        In a statement issued in the Parliament of India on 11 April 2017, Rajnath Singh, India's Minister of Home Affairs, reiterated that Jadhav was kidnapped by Pakistani agencies from Iran and put through trial as a RAW agent. Sushma Swaraj, India's Minister of External Affairs said there was no evidence of any wrongdoing by Jadhav and termed his sentencing an act of "premeditated murder". Swaraj said that if Pakistan implemented the death sentence, the bilateral relations between both countries would face dire consequences .

                           

                                       ( Inter national court of Justice)

          In May 2017, India approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ), asserting that Pakistani authorities were denying India its right of consular access to Jadhav in violation of the Vienna Convention . The ICJ proceedings began in The Hague on 15 May to review the case. India and Pakistan both sent their legal teams to put forward their arguments, led by Harish Salve and Khawar Qureshi respectively . On 18 May 2017, the International Court of Justice stayed the hanging of Jadhav . On 22 June 2017, Pakistani sources confirmed that Jadhav had sought clemency from the country's army chief following his conviction. Pakistan also released a new confessional video of Jadhav, in which he stated that he visited Karachi twice for gathering intelligence on naval facilities. He also admitted to supporting and funding, on behalf of India's RAW, Baloch militants affiliated with the BLA and BRA, in addition to infiltrating and establishing "30 to 40 RAW operatives along the Makran Coast" for involvement in terrorist activities . Jadhav said that RAW's activities in Balochistan and Sindh were conducted under the direction of Anil Kumar Dhasmana . India's Foreign Ministry again dismissed the confession as "false propaganda", stating that Pakistan was trying to influence ICJ proceedings while denying the consular rights to Jadhav.  ICJ did not allow Pakistan to play the video during the hearing .

                                  

                                 (Kulbhushan Mother & wife)

      On 25 December, Jadhav's mother and wife met Jadhav in Islamabad after being allowed permission by Pakistani authorities . India subsequently denounced Pakistan for its handling of the visit of the wife and mother of Jadhav, saying they were harassed and prevented from talking to Jadhav freely. India moved to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which after deliberation stayed the execution of the sentence passed by Pakistani military court, the ICJ also found a violation of Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by Pakistan and directed Pakistan to provide consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav in its July 2019 verdict.

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 Suvendu Singha.(India, Odisha, Balasore)