ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Saturday that it had received a reply from India to its offer to arrange a meeting of Kulbushan Jadhav with his wife.
Security forces had arrested the Indian naval officer Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel on March 3, 2016 in a counter-intelligence operation from Balochistan, for his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. In April, a military court handed down death sentence to Jadhav after he was found guilty. India has approached the International Court of Justice, which has stayed the conviction until a verdict is delivered.
On November 10, the Foreign Office said it had offered to India to host a meeting of Jadhav with his wife on humanitarian grounds. “Indian reply to Pakistan’s humanitarian offer for Commander Jadhav received and is being considered,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said on his official Twitter on Saturday. The spokesman said last week that Pakistan had decided to arrange a meeting of Commander Jhadev with his wife, in Pakistan, purely on humanitarian grounds and that the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, had been informed about the decision.
Pakistan insists that Jhadev, a serving Commander of the Indian Navy, working with the Indian premier intelligence agency was apprehended by Pakistan law enforcement agencies after he illegally crossed over into Pakistan. “He confessed before a magistrate and the court that he was tasked by Research and Analysis Wing to plan, coordinate and organize espionage, terrorist and sabotage activities aimed at destabilizing and waging war against Pakistan,” a Foreign Ministry statement had stated last week. According to sources, India has sought an additional visa for Jadhav’s mother and permission for her to meet the convicted spy. “In its response, India has expressed reluctance in sending Jadhav’s wife alone to Pakistan and insisted that his mother’s application is also processed,” sources said. India maintains that Jadhav’s mother has also a right to meet her son.
Published in Daily Times, November 19th 2017.
