ISLAMABAD - Indian serving naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav who has been sentenced to death on the charges of espionage, sabotage and terrorism has made a mercy petition to Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

According to a transcript released by ISPR on Thursday, Jadhav in his plea admitted his involvement in espionage, terrorism and subversive activities in Pakistan. Seeking forgiveness for his actions, he requested the chief of army staff to spare his life on compassionate grounds.

Commander Jadhav had earlier appealed to the military appellate court, which had been rejected. Under the law, he is eligible to appeal for clemency to the chief of army staff and, if rejected, to the president of Pakistan.

In his second confessional video, he accepted his acts of terrorism and espionage in Pakistan. Jadhav, in his confession, said one Anil Kumar sponsored terrorist activities in Pakistan on behalf of RAW. These included encouraging sectarian violence targeting Hazara and Shia citizens, particularly those travelling between Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan for pilgrimage.

“The purpose of sponsoring various attacks in the region was to create instability or some kind of fear among the people of Pakistan,” Jadhav said, adding the high-profile assassination of Superintendent of Police Chaudhry Aslam was an example of the kind of disturbance India wanted to create.

According to Jadhav, RAW also directly sponsored the targeting of Frontier Works Organisation workers in Balochistan, besides sponsoring improvised explosive device (IED) attacks carried out by Baloch nationals in Quetta, Turbat and various other cities of Balochistan.

The spy said the financing which subsequently happened for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and various other anti-Pakistan Afghan terrorist groups led to several attacks one of which was on the Mehran Naval Base.

Other terror strikes that Jadhav said were funded and directly supported by Anil Kumar included a sort of radar installation attack, the Sui pipeline gas attacks, attacks on civilian bus stations in which Pakistani nationals were targeted, murdered and massacred by Baloch nationals in order to cause disruptions in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“He wanted the attacks to be raised to the next level so that complete disruption and complete stoppage of the CPEC between Gwadar and China is achieved,” Jadhav added.

A military-style attack on Pakistani consulate in Zahidan was also planned by RAW officials along with Baloch insurgents, Jadhav confessed. “The aim was to either attack it with a grenade or some kind of rocket-propelled grenade or an IED hit or to harm the consul general or some kind of vicious attack on the Pakistani consulate in Zahidan,” he said.

Additionally, he said, RAW had sponsored the creation of a new website for the Baloch movement, besides handling an existing website which was luring people from within Pakistan for various activities to be carried out in the future.

Funding for these activities took place through hawala and hundi operations, Jadhav said, with the finances moved from Delhi and Mumbai via Dubai into Pakistan.

Jadhav was previously tried by a field general court martial under Section 59 of the PAA and Section 3 of the official Secret Act of 1923 and sentenced to death.

Jadhav had confessed before a magistrate and the court that he had been tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage and sabotage activities to destabilise Pakistan by impeding the efforts of law-enforcement agencies for restoration of peace in Balochistan and Karachi, the ISPR had said earlier.

Jadhav’s first confessional statement was aired by former ISPR DG Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa, in which the spy confessed to involvement in terror activities in Balochistan and Karachi.

Terming the Indian spy’s arrest a big achievement, Bajwa had said at the time that Jadhav was directly handled by the RAW chief, the Indian national security adviser and the RAW joint secretary. “His goal was to disrupt development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, with Gwadar port as a special target,” Bajwa had stated, adding “This is nothing short of state-sponsored terrorism. There can be no clearer evidence of Indian interference than it in Pakistan.”

“If an intelligence or armed forces officer of this rank is arrested in another country, it is a big achievement,” Bajwa had said, before playing a video of Jadhav confessing to RAW’s involvement in Balochistan separatist activities in Pakistan.

A 10-member bench of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ top court, is hearing an urgent bid by India to stop Pakistan from executing Jadhav. The ICJ, in a hearing of the case on May 18, restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav and rejected India’s request to delay proceedings in the case until December.

India was also ordered to submit a response by September 13 regarding the case.

Jadhav files mercy appeal with army chief