Experts call it desperation and Islamabad’s diversionary tactic

A Pakistani military tribunal sentencing former Indian navy official Kulbhushan Jadhav to death on charges of spying and sabotage is an act of desperation, say experts.

They are of the opinion that the Pakistan army may have taken the lead in the regard for ‘obvious reasons’. “This seems like a desperate move by the Pakistan army,” said TCA Raghavan, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan.

He said the neighbour’s army needed a reason to divert attention from a series of terror strikes in Pakistan and its inability to contain them.

“This (Jadhav’s sentencing) could well be a diversionary tactic. The Pakistan army is not getting the success it thought it would in the fight against terrorists,” Raghavan added. Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh said Pakistan was facing isolation on the issue of terrorism internationally and had taken a desperate measure to “reclaim some ground” and tell the world that it was a “victim of terrorism from India”.

“Pakistan may think this will help them. But the farcical trial and the way they have gone about with the entire process in a clumsy manner will not lend any credibility to their efforts,” he said. “Had they got enough evidence, they would have resorted to other means to put pressure on India. Since they didn’t have much evidence, they took the route of a military tribunal court,” Mansingh said.

Strategic affairs expert Uday Bhaskar said the China angle, too, could not be ruled out. Pakistan has been saying India is out to damage the China-pakistan economic corridor and hence, this could be a message for the Chinese.