ISLAMABAD - Kulbhushan Jadhav remains the living face of Indian terrorism - a country that claims to be the world’s largest democracy.
Kulbhushan Jadhav was unleashed on Pakistan by India to destabilise the country.
Jadhav, alias Hussain Mubarek Patel, was apprehended on 3 March 2016 during a counter-intelligence operation from Mashkel, Balochistan 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.
Jadhav was running a network of terror to sponsor terrorism in Pakistan through local militants. His cynical activities cost Pakistan thousands of lives and hence he was awarded death sentence in April 2017 by the Field General Court Marshal (FGCM).
Hailing from Mumbai, Kulbhushan Jadhav, in his confessional video statement soon after his arrest, said that he had joined Indian Defence Academy in 1987 before being commissioned in Indian navy in 1991.
In contrast with New Delhi’s claim, he said, “I am still a serving officer in the Indian Navy and will be due for retirement in 2022”.
The on-duty spy went on to say that he commenced intelligence operations by 2002 and established a small business in coastal city of Chabahar, Iran in 2003 as a cover-up. He admitted to have visited Karachi undetected in 2003 and 2004.
“I am basically the man for Mr Anil Kumar Gupta who is the joint secretary of RAW and his contact in Pakistan, especially in the Baloch students organization,” he confessed in the video.
The operative said that he was directed to meet Baloch insurgents and conduct subversive activities with their collaboration, which resulted in the ‘killing or injuring of Pakistani citizens’.
The spy had contacts with banned organizations and was working on plans to breakaway Karachi and Balochistan from Pakistan, and to sabotage the flagship China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
Pakistan still offered goodwill gestures. In December 25, 2017 Pakistan allowed Jadhav’s mother and his wife to travel to Pakistan to meet him.
Jadhav’s family members were accompanied by then Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh during the meeting.
India later approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence.
In July 2019 after case hearing, the ICJ had disappointed India by neither annulling Jadhav’s conviction nor referring his matter for retrial.
Instead, it directed Pakistan to take all measures to provide for effective review and reconsideration, including, if necessary, by enacting ‘appropriate legislation’. It maintained the stay on the convicted spy’s execution till ‘effective review’.
The court pointed out that respect for principles of fair trial was of cardinal importance in any review and reconsideration, and that, in the circumstances of the case, it was essential for the review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav to be effective. Pakistan enacted the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Act), that a consular officer of the mission of the state concerned may file a petition before a court for review of a conviction, or sentence, handed down by a military court to its citizen in another country.
The National Assembly adopted a bill giving Kulbhushan Jadhav the right to appeal against the death sentence awarded by a military court in April 2017. The assembly carried out the legislation in compliance with a ruling given by the International Court of Justice in July 2019 asking Pakistan to grant the Indian spy the right to appeal against the death sentence and also to give him consular access.
Jadhav 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.