News Analysis |
One of the reputed Indian magazines, Frontline, has acknowledged that India is engaged in a covert war against Pakistan. These revelations have come from one of India’s well-known and credible media houses.
The Indian government has remained in continuous denial over the real identity of Kulbhushan Jadhav and confronted Pakistan at all levels on the issue. The admission of Frontline that is published by the same publishers as one of India’s most popular magazines, ‘The Hindu’, is a credible voice within India that complies with Pakistan’s claims long denied by India.
The Frontline asserted that time has come for India to reflect back seriously on its expanding programme of covert actions and its long-term consequences. The Frontline author, Parween Swami declared that ´there should be no difficulty in settling the truth of the claims that Jadhav still serves with the Indian Navy”.
Indian government nevertheless continues to play dirty games and politics over the issue. These fresh revelations may convince the Indian public of Jadhav’s true employment status and illegal activities in Pakistan.
According to the Gazette of India records, Jadhav was “inducted into the Navy in 1987, with the service number 41558Z, Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav would likely have been promoted to the rank of commander after 13 years of service, in 2000”. There is no record of Jadhav in subsequent years, and as per the official stance of the Indian government, as it told the International Court of Justice, Jadhav is a retired officer. However, it fails to give an exact date of his retirement.
Read more: ‘Kulbhushan Jadhav is a RAW spy’, The Quint confirmed then took…
The Naval headquarters has also adopted a similar strategy and despite the inquiries from Parween Swami, declined to comment on the matter. The writer believes that any individual arrested for espionage is dealt with in the same manner, as has been the case with Jadhav. “Thirteen Indians are being held in Pakistan on espionage charges, and 30 Pakistanis are in Indian jails, but in not a single case has either country officially concerned itself with its agent’s fate”, he says.
The sources near the Naval Intelligence officers have reaffirmed the claims that Jadhav was indeed on a covert operation. He left India in December 2003 for Iran and worked undercover for setting up Kaminda Trading Company. “Former RAW officials claimed that the push to draw Jadhav into front-line intelligence work was driven by the I.B.’s ambitions to have an independent overseas role.”
Despite having a strong case against the culprit and in possession of multiple proofs of his activities in Pakistani territory, Pakistan did not entirely succeed to convince the international community over terrorism, spying and other disruptive activities against the country.
According to the sources of an author, in post 26/11 scenarios, Jadhav had floated an idea to launch a counter-attack on Pakistan’s port city Karachi to avenge the Mumbai attacks. But, senior officers did not like the idea and seemed content to continue covert operations.
RAW was not pleased with Jadhav after getting in contact with him in 2010. He could not bring forward any particular information of interest which RAW already didn’t know. He was given small assignments to test his capabilities, and small payments were made for these tasks. The payments to Jadhav continued from 2010 to 2014 under K.C. Verma, Sanjiv Tripathi, and Alok Joshi.
Read more: ‘I am still a commissioned officer’, says Kulbhushan Jadhav
All along this period, Jadhav stayed on the payroll of RAW, but his employment structure remained ambiguous. There is a chance that he may have continued in naval officers books to avoid any bureaucratic glitches. Parween Swami writes that according to a RAW official “basically, it makes it impossible for India to deny he is who he says he is, which is a basic element of tradecraft.”
There is no record of Jadhav in subsequent years, and as per the official stance of the Indian government, as it told the International Court of Justice, Jadhav is a retired officer. However, it fails to give an exact date of his retirement.
In light of such extraordinary investigation and claims of the Frontline author, it is pertinent to say that Jadhav is indeed an Indian spy who operated in Pakistan and is directly responsible for the deaths of many innocent Pakistani nationals.
Despite having a strong case against the culprit and in possession of multiple proofs of his activities in Pakistani territory, Pakistan did not entirely succeed to convince the international community over terrorism, spying and other disruptive activities against the country. The military court awarded him a death sentence, and Chief of Army Staff endorsed his punishment.
Indian government nevertheless continues to play dirty games and politics over the issue. These fresh revelations may convince the Indian public of Jadhav’s true employment status and illegal activities in Pakistan.