Indian envoy meets Kulbhushan Jadhav

ISLAMABAD: Indian Chargé D'affaires (CDA) Gaurav Ahluwalia had a two-hour meeting with the RAW operative Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav on Monday. Pakistan on Sunday announced that it was providing consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav on Monday.

Jadhav, 49, is a serving Indian Navy officer and RAW operative sentenced to death by a military court for espionage and terrorism in Pakistan. The Pakistani security forces arrested him in the Balochistan province on March 3, 2016.

The consular access is being granted in line with a judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Vienna Convention on consular relations.

The Foreign Office said Pakistani officials were present during the meeting, and adhering to the Indian request, there was no restrictionon the language of communication, which was recorded. The Indian chargé d'affaires was informed that the meeting would be recorded.

“As a responsible member of the international community and in line with our international commitments, Pakistan has provided unimpeded, uninterrupted consular access to India to Commander Jadhav,” added the statement.

Though the Foreign Office did not indicate the place where the meeting took place, earlier Gaurav Ahluwalia had driven into the Foreign Office, where earlier also Jadhav had met his mother and wife.

Meanwhile, earlier the Indian External Affairs Ministry (EAM) in a statement said it awaited a comprehensive report most probably from the Indian mission in Islamabad. “It was clear that Shri Jadhav was under extreme pressure to parrot Pakistan’s untenable claims,” the ministry said.

The Indian officials also contacted the mother of Jadhav and updated her on Monday’s meeting. “We will decide a further course of action after receiving a detailed report from our CDA and determine the extent of conformity with the ICJ directives,” added the statement.