Pakistan sentences Indian RAW agent Kulbhushan Jadhav to death

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan has sentenced an Indian RAW agent Kulbhushan Jadhav to death for carrying out espionage and sabotage activities in Balochistan and Karachi, the ISPR said Monday.

Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has confirmed death sentence awarded by the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA).

According to an ISPR press release, Kulbhusan Sundir Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016, through a Counter-Intelligence Operation from Mashkel area of Balochistan for his involvement in espionage and sabotage actives in Pakistan. 

Jadhav an on-duty officer for the Indian Navy confessed to his crimes in a recorded video statement televised by the ISPR last year following his arrest.

"The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded death sentence. Today COAS, General Qamar Javed Bajwa has confirmed death sentence awarded by FGCM. 

"RAW agent Commander Kulbushan Sundir Jadhav was tired under FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of official Secret Act of 1923.

"The FGCM found Jadhav guilty of all charges. He confessed before a Magistrate and the Court that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi," said the press release.

The accused was provided with a defending officer as per legal provisions, the ISPR added. 

There has been no date announce yet for Yadav's execution 

Related: Complete text and video of Kulbhushan Yadav's confessional statement

Sentence should serve as warning 

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the death sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav should serve as a warning to those engaged in terrorism in Pakistan.

“Those plotting against Pakistan will not be spared,” Asif said while speaking to Geo News.

The defence minister made it clear that Jadhav’s sentencing was according to the law. Khawaja Asif added that all constitutional force would be used against those acting against the sovereignty of Pakistan.

“Soldiers and civilians of Pakistan have given sacrifices for this country and their sacrifices demand us to give a befitting reply to terrorists and those who aid and facilitate them.”  

The defence minister further said that Jadhav’s confession was a public document and if India raises the issue of his death sentence, Pakistan will give them a reply. “Yadav came from the approval of the Indian government…there is no doubt that India is fueling terrorism in Pakistan.”

According to Asif, the entire world had acknowledged Pakistan’s struggle against terrorism and the country was dealing with this menace from both the eastern and western front.

'Jadhav’s death sentence as per law'

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that Indian RAW agent Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death sentence was as per the law of the country, adding that it is premature to state when the decision will be implemented.

He said that it was too early to give a reaction on India’s objection to the death sentence.

'PPP against death penalty but Jadhav’s case different'

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that his party in principle was against the death penalty, however, added that it was a different case when it comes to the matter of Indian spies operating in Pakistan.

Talking to the media in Lahore, he said the Indian spy Kalbhushan Jadhav should have never been in the country in the first place.

Must read: Reaction to Yadav death sentence

Indian involvement in destabilising Pakistan

India has long had a history of fanning terrorism inside Pakistan by sponsoring terrorist outfits in Balochistan, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Karachi.

Islamabad has said that the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav substantiates India’s continued involvement in subversive activities in Pakistan.

Earlier this year, Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi handed over a dossier to United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres detailing evidence of Indian subversive activities within Pakistani territory.

The dossier contained Jadhav's confessional statement and related documents and evidence of Indian interference in Balochistan. Video evidence of an Indian Navy submarine sneaking into Pakistani waters on November 18, 2016 was also part of the dossier.

The dossier also included proof of contacts of Indian intelligence officials, working under diplomatic cover at Indian High Commission in Islamabad, with terrorists. Pakistan, in the dossier, urged the United Nations to prevent India from attempting to destabilise it.

A fake identity card that was recovered from Yadav after his arrest from Balochistan

Investigations after Jadhav's arrest last year had revealed that the undercover Indian agent's main agenda was to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through propaganda and to create disharmony among the Baloch nationalist political parties.

Jadhav is not the first RAW operative caught snooping in Pakistan

Prior to Kulbhushan, a good number of Indian spies have been spotted and hand-cuffed in Pakistan during the course of country's enmity with its neighbouring nation.

The most notable among dozens of Indian spies caught in Pakistan included Ravindra Kaushik (1952–1999), who was sent across the border in 1975 on a mission at the age of 23 after extensive training in Delhi for two years. Kaushik succeeded in getting a civilian clerk's job in the Military Accounts Department of the Pakistan Army and kept on passing valuable information to RAW from 1979 to 1983.

Another famous RAW agent Sarabjit Singh (also known as Manjit Singh) was convicted of terrorism and spying by the Pakistan Supreme Court for a series of bomb attacks that had killed 14 people in Lahore and Faisalabad during 1990.

A detailed list of Indian agents caught carrying out subversive activities and espionage in Pakistan can be read here in this exhaustive research conducted by the Jang Group and Geo Television Network.