Pakistan to arrange meeting between Kulbhushan Jadhav and his wife on humanitarian grounds

NEWDELHI/ISLAMABAD: Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death in Pakistan for alleged spying, will be allowed to meet his wife on “humanitarian grounds”, PTV News, Pakistan’s official state broadcaster reported on Friday.

Jadhav has been accused of being an agent of the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s external spying agency. New Delhi has strongly refuted Pakistan’s allegations and has approached the International Court of Justice to vacate the death sentence given to Jadhav. Jadhav, who is a former Indian Navy officer, was arrested in March 2016 on charges espionage. Pakistan claimed the Indian national was involved in “terrorist activities” in the restive Balochistan region.

India, which completely rejected Pakistan’s charges, reputedly sought consular access to Jadhav. Islamabad, however, all of New Delhi’s requests, claiming that since the Indian national faces espionage charges, Pakistan is not obligated to grant India consular access to him. On April 10 this year, a military court in Pakistan convicted Jadhav and sentenced him to death.

“RAW agent Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav was tried by FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952) and Section 3 of official Secret Act of 1923. FGCM found Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav guilty of all the charges,” the Pakistani military said in a statement then. In response, India slammed Pakistan for conducting a “farcical”, secretive trial and said that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran and later brought to Balochistan. New Delhi later took Islamabad to the The Hague, Netherlands-based International Court of Justice, contending that Pakistan violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Access by not allowing India consular access to Jadhav.