November 21, 2024

A Pakistani military court has held an in-camera court martial and sentenced an Indian man, Kulbhushan Jadhav, to death for carrying out spying and espionage in Pakistan. India has called it “premeditated murder.” This has immediately escalated tensions between the two countries, with India now refusing to release 12 Pakistani prisoners who were set to return home tomorrow on completing their sentence in India. While Pakistan had accused Jadhav of being an officer of the Indian Navy recruited by RAW to conduct spying and espionage in Balochistan and Karanchi, India, while admitting that Jadhav was a former Navy personnel, denied that he was a RAW agent. India also said that the video of Jadhav’s confession put out by the Pakistanis was fabricated and fake.

Foreign secretary S Jaikishan called Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche saying that if the sentence was carried out, the people of India would consider it as “premeditated murder.” The demarche also said that the sentence was awarded “without observing basic norms of law and justice.” This Indian contention arises from the fact that they were not allowed consular access to Jadhav despite issuing 6 note verbales. This goes against all norms of international diplomacy.

Law, even military law, allows an accused to defend himself in a proper manner. If an alien is caught in any country and accused of such grave crimes as spying and espionage, the consular corps of his native country must be allowed access as only they can arrange for his defense. By not allowing access to Jadhav and by holding the Field General Court Marshall in a cloak of secrecy, Pakistan stands accused of unfair practices. The trial was farcical as just a few months ago, Sartaz Aziz, Pakistan’s national security advisor had said that "So far, we have just statements about the involvement of the Indian spy in terror activities in Pakistan. What the dossier contained was not enough. Now it is up to the concerned authorities how long they take to give us more matter on the agent.” Although he later went back on his words and said Jadhav was very much involved, the earlier words gave the clue that Pakistan wanted to make an example of Jadhav.

But subverting justice and the legal process just to go one up on India is not going to work. It will only serve to further worsen the relations between the two countries that are already on a precipice. The two nations can at least let things remain normal if they are not able to improve relations. If Pakistan had not sentenced Jadhav to death, India would have released the 12 prisoners. A lot of goodwill would have been generated. Alas, that was not to be. The latest Pakistani decision has escalated the tensions.