Kindness on a Spy

By Ali Sukhanver
On repeated requests of India, the government of Pakistan provided an opportunity to the Indian spy Commander Kalboshan Jadhav of meeting his mother and wife on 25th December 2017. Some say that it was a gift from Pakistan to the old mother of Jadhav on the birthday of the Father of Nation Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and some say it was a Christmas gift for the two wretched ladies. Pakistan’s showering of benevolence and kindheartedness on a spy would certainly be astonishing rather surprising to a lot of people outside Pakistan but the fact of the matter is that Pakistan did it just to tell the world that Pakistan is not a land of extremist people and that Pakistan knows well what is the importance and value of human rights. It was the right of Jadhav’s wife and mother to meet him, so Pakistan did not become a hindrance in the way to their basic human right. Moreover these two ladies had nothing to do with the cruelty and brutality, this unfortunate son and the unlucky husband had been involved in.
It is also a very important fact that India had tried all her best to exert a pressure on Pakistan to provide consular access to Kalboshan Jadhav, the terrorist but Pakistan simply ‘ignored’ all that pressure by telling the Indian authorities that spies are not entitled to consular access following an agreement made with India in 2008. Factually the job of a spy is to gather information and to keep an eye on the assigned scenario. Kalboshan was not a simple spy; he was a planner rather an executioner. He was sent to Pakistan to sabotage the CPEC and to create disturbance in Balochistan. He provided a lot of logistic, financial and moral support to the terrorists working on a plan to destabilize Balochistan. At the time of his arrest he was in Balochistan and the law enforcement agencies caught him red handed from there. He himself said in his confession statement that he is an in-service officer of the Indian navy. According to an official statement released by the Armed Forces of Pakistan, Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel, a naval officer 41558Z working as a RAW agent was arrested on March 3, 2016 through a Counter Intelligence Operation from Mashkel, Balochistan. He was involved in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. He was tried through Field General Court Martial (FCGM) under Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded death sentence. According to media reports a few years back Jadhav was officially directed to work with the Indian intelligence organization RAW. Since then he had been working on different plans of patronizing the so-called separatists in Balochistan. His involvement in kidnapping and killing of Chinese engineers and officials working for CPEC has also been reported in media. Moreover this spy was involved in damaging sectarian harmony in Balochistan and in Karachi. Commander Kalboshan was presented to the Military Court with all proofs and with his confessional statement from where he received death sentence. Jadhav had filed an appeal with Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa to seek clemency which is still under consideration.
It is something very interesting that after Jadhav’s arrest the Indian media India had been blaming that the law enforcement agencies of Pakistan had killed him in their custody. Last April BJP MP and former home secretary RK Singh said talking to India Today correspondent Supriya Bhardwaj that Jadhav’s could have suffered custodial death after torture in Pakistani jail. Now Jadhav’s wife and mother have seen the Commander alive and certainly in a very good health. For anyone it must have been very difficult to believe that the man clad in a blue suit, sitting on the other side of the table is a prisoner waiting for his death sentence to be acted upon. Pakistan has strictly followed all diplomatic rules and regulations in taking care of the Indian spy Commander Kalboshan Jadhav but on the other hand India’s attitude with the Pakistanis in the Indian jails is always contrary to the diplomatic trends and traditions.
Pakistan has no soft corner for such a dangerous and harmful criminal like Kalboshan Jadhav as he was playing an important role in a plan of destabilizing Pakistan by patronizing terrorist groups in Balochistan and in Karachi; but even then Pakistan showered kindness on his mother and wife just on humanitarian grounds. Unfortunately instead of being thankful to Pakistan and instead of expressing gratefulness to Pakistan, India expressed her gratitude by starting unprovoked firing the same day along the Line of Control at Rakhchikri, Rawlakot sector which took the lives of three Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan has all capability of paying India in the same coin, and Pakistan would certainly pay back India very soon but this nonsense behavior of India in response to Pakistan’s kindness would directly affect the fate of Kalboshan Jadhav. Pakistan will have to be as harsh and ruthless on him as India is usually with the people from Pakistan.