New Delhi: India will wait for Pakistan government’s response to its protests over death penalty to alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and not react in a hurry, sources have told CNN-News18.
That is because New Delhi is certain that Pakistan will not carry out the hanging sentence immediately as it would exhaust all options available to the neighbouring country.
In the meanwhile India will explore all diplomatic options for saving Jadhav from the death row, sources said, adding that this was also the suggestion given to the government by security agencies.
In a bid to ramp up pressure through mutual friends, India is likely to raise the issue with US National Security Advisor H R McMaster who is visiting New Delhi and Islamabad next week.
Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit has been apparently told to provide the evidence against Jadhav and five him a fair trial following the rules of diplomacy.
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The government is also trying to understand the real reason behind the hurry in which a Pakistan military court sentenced Indian national Jadhav to the gallows for “espionage and subversive activities” and the urgency with which Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed it.
Security agencies are also learnt to have suggested to the government not to deal with the issue through backchannels but to keep pressurising Islamabad through official channels. That is because they feel opening up of backchannels may undermine the Indian position.
Jadhav was arrested reportedly from Balochistan after he entered from Iran in March 2016. He was accused by Pakistan of being a “R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing) agent” and planning “subversive activities” in the country.
The Indian government, on the other hand, believed that he was picked up from Iran.
The case took a turn In December 2016, when Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz told the Pakistan Senate that there was not enough evidence against Jadhav.
However, in March, Aziz retracted his statement and ruled out any possibility of extraditing Jadhav back to India.
Aziz told the Senate that Pakistan never said there was any lack of evidence against him. “We have filed an FIR and prepared a case to prosecute Indian state actor for his subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan,” he said.
Aziz said Islamabad had shared a dossier with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on New Delhi’s involvement in internal affairs of Pakistan, and in subversive and terrorist activities in the country.