Jadhav may be serving naval officer, says Indian magazine

That India has unleashed a covert war against Pakistan and that convicted spy Kulbhushan Jadhav is a serving officer of Indian Navy is no longer news for Pakistanis because they already know that. But it's surely news - big news - when a major Indian magazine, published by a reputable media house, finally comes around to admitting that.

The magazine concerned is Frontline that is published by publishers of the wellknown newspaper The Hindu, which has not only acknowledged that India is engaged in a covert war but also said that Jadhav's arrest and conviction by the Pakistan Army has underlined the need for New Delhi to review its policies.

The admission made by the Frontline is all the more significant because a similar report - discussing Jadhav's career as an agent of the Research and Analysis Wing ( RAW) - was canned just a few weeks ago. So much pressure was brought to bear on the staff of The Quint that it pulled the damning report from its website for "rechecking some of the information mentioned in the article".

In his article in the Frontline, Praveen Swami writes: "Ever since 2013, India has secretly built up a covert action programme against Pakistan" that was initially led by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and now by RAW's Anil Dhasmana. The programme registered unprecedented success, according to him.

"...But the story of the man on death row [Jadhav] illustrates that this secret war is not risk-free. Lapses in trade-craft and judgement, inevitable parts of any human enterprise, can inflict harm far greater than the good they seek to secure," Swami says.

Praveen Swami writes regularly for the Indian Express. His article's publication in the Frontline, and not in the Express, suggests that the latter may have declined to publish it.