India warns Pakistan against execution of 'Indian spy'

NEW DELHI, India

India will do whatever it takes to save its Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been sentenced to death for espionage and sabotage by a Pakistani court, Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the parliament Tuesday.

“No matter what needs to be done, the Indian government will do it,” Singh told the Lok Sabha, which is the lower house of the Indian parliament.

“The government strongly condemns Pakistan military court's verdict awarding death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav. I want to assure the House that justice will be done,” he said.

Later, Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj warned Pakistan of severe consequence to bilateral ties if it went ahead with the execution of Jhadav.

"I would caution Pakistan government to consider the consequences for our bilateral relationship if they proceed on this matter," Swaraj said in the parliament.

She also claimed there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Jadhav.

“He is the victim of a plan that seeks to cast aspersions on India to deflect international attention from Pakistan's well-known record of sponsoring and supporting terrorism," she added.

Cutting across party lines, Indian parliamentarians also condemned Pakistan for awarding the death sentence.

Opposition Congress party MP Ghulam Nabi Azad said: “Our government has to ensure that Jadhav should have the best lawyers to fight the case in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

Another Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said Pakistan had violated international rule by sentencing Jadhav and India must draw attention of the international community, particularly the UN, in hauling Pakistan.

On Monday, a Pakistani military court sentenced Jadhav to death. No date was set for his execution, which would be by hanging.

Jadhav, who the court heard was a serving officer in the Indian Navy, had been allegedly involved in carrying out espionage and sabotage in Pakistan’s Karachi city and Balochistan province.

“The spy has been tried through field general court martial under the Pakistan Army Act and awarded the death sentence,” the military’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had said in a statement.

Jadhav was arrested in March last year in Mashkel, a town a few kilometers (miles) from the Iranian border. According to the military, he was using the Muslim name Hussein Mubarak Patel.

Officials accuse Jadhav of running a spy network for India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence agency from the Iranian port of Chabahar.

ISPR head Lt. Gen. Asim Bajwa earlier said Jadhav had aimed to disrupt the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, particularly the Gwadar port in Balochistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi Abdul Basit called Jadhav an Indian terrorist.

In an interview with Pakistani news channel Samaa TV, Basit said: “He [Jadhav] should meet his fate for whatever he did.

"First they indulge in terrorism on our land. And now that we have punished a terrorist, why do they protest?" he said, adding Pakistan did nothing wrong by sentencing Jadhav to death.

Pakistani ex-colonel goes missing

Also on Tuesday, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said a retired Pakistani army colonel who went missing in Nepal near the Indian border last week may have been “kidnapped” by Indian intelligence agencies.

In an interview with local broadcaster Geo TV, Asif said: “We don’t know about that yet, but there is a possibility that he was kidnapped by Indian intelligence agencies.”

Lt. Col. (retd.) Mohammad Habib, has been missing since April 6 from Lumbini, a Nepalese town near the Indian border soon after his arrival there.

A resolution was moved in Pakistan’s Punjab state assembly urging the federal government to take up the issue with the Nepali government, which “must act to stop the foreign intelligence agencies” from shifting the abducted officer to India.

*Anadolu Agency’s Aamir Latif contributed to this report from Karachi, Pakistan