Who is Kulbhushan Jadhav? (Indian Spy to Be hanged in Pakistan)
Pakistan media hailed, rejoiced and claimed – “Now India will learn a lesson”. The news of death sentence being awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav elated the presstitutes of Pakistan and they started broadcasting a video released by General Asim Bajwa and Federal Information Minister Pervez Rashid where Jadhav – who, Pakistan claims to be Indian Spy – a RAW agent – was shown confessing that he was sent by India. Jadhav was arrested from Balochistan by the Pakistani government last year (2016) in March. The video showed Kulbhushan confessing that he was an officer of Indian Navy and post-retirement, he was sent to Balochistan by RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) – the external spy agency of India. The Indian Government has accepted that Kulbhushan was indeed a retired officer of Indian Navy but India clearly denied of Jadhav being an Indian Spy. India says that post-retirement Jadhav went to Iran to start a small business with an Iranian national as a partner.
Who really is Kulbhushan Jadhav?
This is one question that is floating around. There are claims from both Pakistani side and Indian side. Let’s find out what Pakistan has to say and then we can see what India has to claim.
Pakistani Version: Who is Kulbhushan Jadhav?
Pakistanis claim that Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav is an Indian Spy who works for RAW. He was arrested from Balochistan’s Mashkel on 3rd March 2016. He used the name Hussein Mubarak Patel as an alias.
Pakistan claims that Jadhav was talking to his own family back in India using his cellphone and used Marathi language to speak. Because all calls made to India from Pakistan are monitored, it became easy for Pakistani administration to catch hold of Jadhav.
On top of that, Pakistani side claims that a flat that is located in Maharashtra’s Panvel clearly establishes the link between Hussein Mubarak Patel and Kulbhshan Jadhav, who according to Pakistan, is an Indian spy who was installed in Balochistan for sabotaging Pakistan’s peace-keeping efforts and to help Baloch rebels to create insurgency in the area.
Jadhav was tried in Pakistani military court under Field General Court Martial and the confessional video helped the court to judge that Jadhav was indeed a spy and hence, awarded death sentence.
Indian Version: Who is Kulbhushan Jadhav?
Indian side holds that Kulbhushan Jadhav was indeed a commander of Indian Navy and rendered his services to the armed forces for 12 years. After that, he took retirement and when to Iran and started a small business. It is claimed that Jadhav worked out of Chabahar port in Iran.
Jadhav is 46 years old who, in 1987, joined India’s National Defence Academy and entered Indian Navy.
The passport of Jadhav shows his birth place to be in Maharashtra’s Sangli and his birth date, as of the passport is 30th August 1968. However, Indian reports state that his birth date was 16th April, 1970. He has a family in India and married. Jadhav’s father was an ACP (now retired). Kulbhushan’s father’s name is Sudhir Jadhav. Kulbhushan also has two uncles both of who are employees of the government of Maharashtra.
In defense of Kulbhushan, India has the following things to say:
- If Kulbhushan is an Indian spy, why one earth will he carry an Indian passport? Any trained field agent who is installed in hostile territory never carries any document which can link him or her back with his or her home nation. That’s how intelligence works all over the world.
- Pakistan claims on the place of arrest of Jadhav are also highly inconsistent. Sarfaraz Bugti – Balochistant’s Home Minister (Balochistan is a province of Pakistan) said that place, where Pakistan’s counter-intelligence picked up Jadhav, was Chaman. Chaman is a place in Balochistan’s eastern extreme and is close to Afghanistan-Pakistan border. General Asim Bajwa on the other hand, stated during ISPR press conference that pick up point was Saravan close to Iran-Pakistan border. Chaman and Saravan are separated by a distance of 873 kilometers.
- The confessional video had heavy audio and video editing where expressions of Jadhav’s face don’t really match with the voice heard in the video.
- Pakistan spent 3 weeks for arresting Jadhav after detaining him and this seriously shows that Pakistan perhaps used third-degree torture and coercive techniques to get a confession and then edited the video to suit their needs.
- Pakistan did not follow basic rules related to justice and law and that India was denied consular access to Jadhav even after 13 requests were made by the Indian government to Pakistani government over 13 months’ time frame.
- Pakistan didn’t even tell anyone that a trial was arranged.
Finally, Jadhav was not a part of the Pakistani military and still, he was tried under Field General Court Martial, which is basically applicable only on Pakistani armed forces. An Indian spy (if at all Jadhav is that as claimed by Pakistan), cannot be tried under the said law.
India has clarified that if Kulbhushan Jadhav hanged as per the death penalty given to him by Pakistan’s military court, India will consider it as ‘Premeditated Murder’ and will act accordingly.
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