Reema Shaukat
Perhaps the day Indian spy was arrested from Pakistani soil, off and on news regarding his nefarious activities remained in limelight. India first accepted his misdeeds and later denied but when he was awarded death sentence India knocked at ICJ door’s in order to get his son of soil from Pakistan’s custody.It is now pertinent fact that India has never accepted Pakistan since its inception and time and again certain roguish activities and blame game against Pakistan make captions. Last year in March, 2016 Indian Navy Commander was arrested while crossing Iranian border of Pakistan. This Navy Commander named as Commander Kulbhushan Yadav was based in the Chabahar, an Iranian dock city and he was detained in area of Baluchistan where he was trying to enter with false identity name as Hussain Mubarak Patel. Upon his arrest he identified himself as a spy of RAW who was assigned special duties to glitch Pakistan’s stability through various means. In his confessional video he gave all details of his whereabouts and mischievous acts in which he was involved.
This is not the first time an Indian agent was arrested in Pakistan. Prior to that present Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval who is always sputtering about Pakistan was working clandestinely for 7 years in the Pakistani territory. Moreover cases of Ravinder Kaushik, Gopal Das and Kashmir Singh also tell the plotted tale of RAW. This shows that India has a well-established network of espionage in Pakistan and RAW keeps on funding certain elements to tremor Pakistan’s stability. When the case of Kulbhushan Yadav was brought into light and Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan was summoned upon alleged activities of RAW in Pakistan, Indian media as usual turned up in favour of its agent. The New Indian Express newspaper in their very own report claimed Yadav as a businessman who owns a small ship and has nothing to do with the Indian intelligence agency RAW. But their so claimed statement proved wrong when Yadav confessed about his identity as serving naval officer and admitted that he rendered his services to RAW. In a video released on 29 March, 2016 Yadav disclosed that he joined RAW at the end of year 2013 and was deputed to provide info about Karachi and Baluchistan. He made several visits to Karachi in 2003 and 2004 for intelligence information on behalf of RAW. When in 2013 he was appointed as an officer by RAW his prime duty was to deteriorate law and order situation in Karachi. Yadav confessed about his involvement in high profile attack in Karachi also. He was supposed to remain in contact with Baloch insurgents and confirmed that Baloch Liberation Army is being funded by RAW. He admitted for establishing a network of operators, providing them funds by RAW and arranging and trafficking people for terrorist activities in Pakistan. He was specifically tasked to carry out bomb blasts and sabotage CPEC by any means. He self-proclaimed for separation of Karachi and Baluchistan from Pakistan and accepted the responsibility of training Baloch separatist terrorists to create chaos and unrest in Pakistan particularly Baluchistan.
The case of Yadav was handed over to military court which announced death sentence to him after which India took the matter to ICJ to save Yadav.In the absence of making bilateral headway or talking to Pakistan, India requested the International Court of Justice to intervene in the Khulbushan Yadav death sentence, citing violations of the Vienna Convention. The ICJ accepted the jurisdiction in the Khulbushan Yadav case and granted a stay against the execution while the court hears the detailed case. As expected, the decision was producedexcitedlywith divergentresponsesand India celebrated it as a political victory. Not exactly knowing that Pakistan has lost nothing and is not worried on court’s stay.In Pakistan, Yadav was tried by a competent court, given access to legal resources and convicted based on valid national law. There is ample evidence which proves his guilt, his two passports under different names and his detailed and public video confession. So, even if the ICJ accepts jurisdiction, Pakistan has a strong case going forward.
Indian intentions of pressurizing Pakistan on Yadav case and to hoodwink its plans created a false story against Pakistan which actually shows Indian frustrations.In an article published on the India Today website, the publication titled “Big blow for Pakistan: Ex-ISI official admits Kulbhushan Jhadav was captured from Iran” an argument which India is maintaining in ICJ that he was arrested from Iran. To keep their stance correct, Indian media false reporting can be exposed from the fact that they said the official was ex-ISI officer which is not true and he has never served in ISI. Lt .Gen(R) Amjad Shaoib who is a defence analyst and regularly appears on media for analysis clarified that India has wrongly perceived his statement as they just want some supporting statement for Yadav in order to win his case at ICJand this is theargument that India maintains in the International Court of Justice in its defence.Giving credence to his stance, the General maintained that had the spy been arrested from inside of Iran, there would have been a protest from the Iranian government and a diplomatic pressure on Pakistan for carrying out the operation in a sovereign country’s territory, which did not happen. “Indian media, by taking my clip out of context is trying to frame it in such a way that makes me look like saying that we captured him from inside of Iran when I meant that he came from Iran and we captured him.” He further said that this is not first time they are doing such act. In past in a TV show, I once said ‘Only China will benefit from CPEC if Pakistan does not do its homework’. However, Indian media ran the story that a retired Pakistani General is saying that ‘Only China will benefit from CPEC’ changing the whole meaning of my statement.He disclosed that the word “operated” from his recorded interview was snipped out from the video that was being circulated in the Indian media and Indian Army do such disgraceful things and don’t understand that these tactics won’t help them. He further added that the unedited versions of his interviews with the Pakistani media are readily available on the internet and one can verify how Indian media manipulated his statement.
By creating hype on Yadav case in media shows that India internally is clear of losing its ball in international courtand to keep the issue fiery it is coming up with baseless allegations on Pakistan.The Yadav case is becoming a turning point between the two countries and one must remember that ICJ yet not has declared anyone the winner. The hearings are a long process and initialverdicts on prerogative do not affect the outcome so the process has long way to go through and India has to show patience on this case.
