Jamal Hussain |
India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Pakistan, accusing the latter of violating the Vienna Convention in the case of the Indian spy Kulbhushan Sudhir Yadav who was apprehended, tried and convicted in Pakistan by a Pakistani military court.
The ICJ has just announced its verdict proclaiming the case does fall under its jurisdiction. It has decided to try the case further, prohibiting Pakistan from executing Kulbhushan until the final verdict. Lawyers are better placed to comment on the legality of the judgment but now that the honourable judges have announced their interim decision, the Indian canard about Kulbhushan’s real background and his activities must be exposed at the international level.
Some background on Yadev
Initially when Yadav‘s arrest was announced by Pakistan, India had refused to accept him as one of their citizens. Subsequently when Yadav’s multiple Indian passports were displayed and his interview aired where he admitted to being an Indian Naval officer of the rank of a Commander recruited by the Indian RAW and was involved in extensive subversive and terror activities in Pakistan’s Balochistan and the city of Karachi, the Indians conceded that he is a bona fide Indian.
unlike the other miserable souls Kulbhushan was a master spy caught red-handed while involved in recruiting and providing support to terror elements inside Pakistan
Admitting that the prisoner was a Commander in the Indian Navy, they maintain that he was no more in active service and having retired was running a legitimate business in Iran from where he was abducted, brought to Pakistan and portrayed as an Indian spy. If this statement is true, the Indian government needs to explain a number of anomalies that are obvious in their narrative.
Anomalies on Indian narrative on Yadev
First, the Indian stance that Kulbhushan was abducted from the Iranian province of Balochistan is not supported by the Iranian government. In the current lukewarm Iran-Pakistan relationship any violation of the Iranian territory and kidnapping of a foreigner especially in the sensitive Zahedan province would have elicited a strong Iranian protest—there was none.
The Kulbhushan Yadav arrest and conviction as a spy has the entire Indian government in turmoil. He has been declared as the “son of India” whose life must be protected at any cost. How come, only Yadav is a son of India whereas scores of other Indian fishermen and lowly placed spies who are routinely apprehended and interred in Pakistani jails are not given the same status? Perhaps there is a very simple explanation—unlike the other miserable souls Kulbhushan was a master spy caught red-handed while involved in recruiting and providing support to terror elements inside Pakistan. His revelations can deal a mortal blow to the RAW subversive and terror activities in Pakistan that would show the world the real face of India.
What Yadev has revealed about his activities
How much of RAW launched espionage activities operating in Pakistan need to be shut down because these might have been compromised by Kulbhushan is something the Indian government and its intelligence agencies are desperate to find out
That he is not a James Bond 007 style hardcore spy but a mediocre naval officer recruited by RAW and launched posthaste is obvious in the manner he sang like a canary when captured. He has already revealed top secret Indian espionage grid under his command which has allowed the Pakistan intelligence agencies to smash the Indian terror networks in Balochistan and Karachi.
The Indians are not sure how much he has revealed and would do anything to learn from him the extent of information he has divulged under interrogation. How much of RAW launched espionage activities operating in Pakistan need to be shut down because these might have been compromised by Kulbhushan is something the Indian government and its intelligence agencies are desperate to find out, hence the repeated attempts to gain counselor access to the convict. No wonder he has been elevated as the son of India and the government is prepared to go to any length to secure his release.
There is a similarity of actions between the Indian treatment of their spy and the manner the Americans handled the release of their spy Raymond Davis. The Americans too were desperate to rescue Raymond before he spilled the beans. Do recall this was the period the American OBL search operation was in full swing and they just could not afford the operation being compromised by a captured CIA operator. The American President Obama went to the extent of putting his reputation on line by proclaiming an obvious untruth that Raymond had diplomatic immunity. America managed to get away with murder because of their immense clout; India, however, is not in the same league and has little chance of obtaining Kulbhushan’s release.
The ICJ verdict might be a temporary setback for Pakistan but in the long run it could prove to be a blessing in disguise. It now has the world stage to comprehensively demonstrate the degree of Indian active involvement in supporting terrorism in Pakistan while professing to be a victim of terror. Handled competently and professionally Pakistan can finally expose at the international level the real Machiavellian face of India where it portrays itself as a victim of terror while in reality it is a sponsor and promoter of criminal gangs and terror syndicates operating in the neighbourhood.
Air Commodore (retd) Jamal Hussain has served in Pakistan Air Force from 1966 to 1997. He was awarded Sitara-e-Basalat for his services in the year 1982. He regularly contributes articles on defense-related issues in the Defence Journal from Pakistan, Probe Magazine (Dhaka – Bangladesh) and Dawn, The News, and The Nation English Dailies from Pakistan. He is the author of two books on ‘Air Power in South Asia’ and ‘Dynamics of Nuclear Weapons in South Asia’. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy.