Even Pakistanis are being tried by military courts: Ex-Pak foreign minister on Kulbhushan Jadhav

Commenting on the death sentence awarded to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav by the Pakistan military court, former foreign minister of Pakistan Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on Tuesday said that even Pakistanis were being tried by military courts.

"Even Pakistanis are being tried by military courts," Kasuri told media here.

Kasuri, who was in Delhi for 'Improving Indo-Pak Relations' programme, further said India and Pakistan needed to cooperate with each other, "so that in the rivalry between U.S. and Russia, we don't end up being losers."

Earlier in the day, Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit categorically said that Jadhav was indeed a terrorist.

"It's a proven fact that India carries out terrorist-driven activities in Pakistan. And when a terrorist himself has accepted he was a spy, the Indian Government is having issues. We haven't done anything wrong in giving the sentence to Jadhav. He should meet his fate," Samaa TV quoted Basit, as saying.

 

Basit was yesterday summoned to protest at the conviction and sentence. India also said that Pakistan had ignored its multiple requests for consular access to Jadhav.

India also issued a demarche against Pakistani military court for awarding death sentence to Jadhav.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Jadhav was the victim of a plan that seeks to cast aspersions on New Delhi to deflect international attention from Islamabad's well-known record of sponsoring and supporting terrorism.

Asserting that India's position on this matter was clear, Swaraj said there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Jadhav.

"If anything, 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. Under these circumstances, we have no choice but to regard the sentence, if carried out, as an act of pre-meditated murder," she added while expressing her concern on this issue in the Rajya Sabha.

Jadhav, who was arrested in March last year by Pakistan and accused by the country of spying, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court yesterday triggering tension between India and Pakistan.