“I am Commander Kulbhushan Yadav,” the Indian man said in a videotaped interview, and proceeded to describe “criminal, anti-national” activities in Pakistan that were allegedly entrusted to him by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s intelligence agency. Visibly unmoved, his assertions were interspersed with smiles and laughter.
After the usual media gaggle, there has been silence regarding Yadav’s arrest. And an air of mystery remains as both the Pakistani and Indian governments have not discussed the contents of his transcript. Pakistan army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa held a news conference to reveal how Yadav converted to Islam and worked undercover as a scrap dealer at Gadani ship-breaking yard in Balochistan. Bajwa gave details of how Yadav established and administered a network of operatives, and funded and smuggled terror mercenaries in Pakistan. Yadav apparently had asked his interrogators to use the code phrase “Your monkey is with us” to let the Indian government know he’d been arrested. “It is very rare that a country’s intelligence officer is caught in another country,” Bajwa said. “It is a big achievement.”
Yadav was arrested March 3 last year near Chaman on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He is alleged to have put his naval training to use planning sabotage at the Pakistani ports of Gwadar and Karachi. He purchased boats at Chahbahar, a port city in southern Iran, and managed Baloch rebels in a bid to destabilise Balochistan, a key province in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Pakistan has often cited RAW’s covert operations in the country and its maintenance of a sleeper-cell network. The Yadav confession reveals the strategy of ethno-sectarian terrorist attacks which could potentially bring Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, to a standstill. Subsequently 400 people belonging to this network were rounded up, out of which three were alleged Indian agents working at Ramzan Sugar Mills, one of Pakistan’s leading refined-sugar processing plants. Seven of those detained were Iranian nationals; most of the gang were busted by tracing Yadav’s phone records. Despite Yadav’s damning statement, the Pakistan government has remained silent on the matter.
India says Yadav not linked to the government
Yadav joined the Indian National Defence Academy in 1987 and got his commission in the engineering branch of the Indian navy in 1991. The Indian MEA Vikas Swarup acknowledged that Yadav is an Indian national and a “former military officer,” but declared: “The said individual has no link with government since his premature retirement from Indian navy. We have sought consular access to him. India has no interest in interfering in the internal matters of any country and firmly believes that a stable and peaceful Pakistan is in the interest of all in the region.” Later on, the same ministry of external affairs claimed that Pakistan fabricated documents to prove Yadav was a serving officer.
Indian journalist Suhasini Haider wrote: “While Mr. Yadav’s confessional statement isn’t quite convincing, the circumstances around his appearance in Pakistan certainly need investigation by India.” Even so, The Ahmedabad Mirror reported that Indian intelligence officers had remarked: “Yadav had been working in the region for 14 years and had become a bit complacent.” Apparently, his accent gave him away because he would talk to his family in Marathi, a language which did not match his fake identity.
A senior diplomat told the Indian Express: “This is, by far, the most high-ranking official — even if he retired some years ago — who has been arrested on Pakistani soil, that too in Balochistan.”
After the arrest, relations between India and Pakistan remained constrained. India won’t answer questions regarding Yadav and is constantly on the defensive, so much so that it backed out of the SAARC summit in Islamabad last year even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi had paid Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif a surprise visit a few months before.
Affairs worsened when Sartaj Aziz, Sharif’s adviser on foreign affairs, was heckled when he arrived in Amritsar, India for the Heart of Asia conference in December. Modi and Afghan president Ashraf Ghani monopolized the conference and blamed Pakistan for terrorism. Aziz was not allowed to talk or interact with the media. He was also prevented from visiting the Golden Temple, a holy place for the Sikh community in Amritsar. The freeze in Pakistan-India relations seems intractable since the Yadav arrest.
Indian ministry insists Yadav is a businessman
India has never denied that Yadav is a citizen. Instead, it was inordinately swift in admitting his identity. Modi critics later said “owning up” that he was ever in the armed forces was a strategic mistake. The Indian ministry of external affairs has repeatedly demanded consular access to Yadav, insisting he is actually a businessman. This has also become a bone of contention between the Indian government and the country’s intelligence community as the blame game continues.
Pakistan has ruled out extradition for Yadav and has said it intends to proceed with prosecution. “We have prepared a … case … to prosecute the Indian state actor for involvement in subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan,” Aziz told a Senate session recently. This is bound to accelerate toxic relations between the two countries.
It is important to note that Pakistan must have ample proof that Yadav is an unlawful combatant or the Indian government would have exercised legal instruments to gain access to its citizen. The Yadav case is the latest confession to Pakistan from India. Prime Ministeer Modi confessed to leading the Mukti Bahini, followed by NSA Ajit Doval with his terror strategies, and last but not the least, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar endorsing terrorism.
India has always adopted an intransigent stance when put on the defensive. It will mention Mumbai but never discuss Kashmir or Kulbhushan Yadav. If he is a spy and is guilty of “waging war” against Pakistan, the government must pursue the case assiduously to bring the spy story to an end before it is forgotten.
Very comprehensive analysis Unfortunately NawazSharif has failed to exploit its importance & significance
What a selective perspective. If Pakistan has any solid proof against Yadav then why did international community not accept it?. When Pakistan gave proof to Iran then why Iran rejected and rebuffed it. You did not mention the confession of Sartaz Aziz in front of Senate committe where he said that there was no conclusive evidence against Kulbhushan Yadav. You are also wrong on the fact regarding cancellation of SAARC meeting. SARC was cancelled in the wake of URI attack not because of Kulbhushan Yadav. You think other countries in SAARC are banana countries so that they will cancel the meet because of this frivolous reason of Kulbhushan Yadav. Please do research correctly and have some neutral perspective before writing an article.
Totally trash analysis… Kulbhushan Yadev was kidnapped from Iran and brought to Pakistan, a terrorist Organization called ISI paid for it, and then framed him for espionage.
This is one of the greatest intelligence coup in recent history. A serving Indian Army officer got caught like a rat. While his primary area of operations was Balochistan his network was spread in Karachi and elsewhere in Pakistan as well. Pro-Gov’t media outlets and retired military men first COMPLETELY denied this occuring when the Pakistan’s military first bought this issue to light.
Now they are shamelessly backtracking and committing to selling another load of verbal diharrea: That ISI kidnapped a FORMER Indian Army man from Iran. LOL.
Make up you mind….cause we in Pakistan have. Indian terrorism will be completely annihilated. Your monkey is with us, and your screeching like rats WILL NOT CHANGE A GOD DAMN THING!
Here is the confessional video of the Indian RAW operative who was captured:
The slides that I’ve posted below is information pertaining to the Pakistani Balochistan that might most definitely be of great interest to those reading this article.
Cheers.
Lady u need to differentitate between fact and fiction. Such a poorly written article with a very vague perspective of the whole situation. Kashmir will be resolved amicably only when Pakistan stops its nerfarious activities there. if u want plebiscite according to UN resolution Pak is supposed to hand over POK, Gilgit which it has been illegally occupying since 1947 to India. Don’t cry wolf when u are the real reason for all the problems Kashmir faces today. If India would have been as assertive on POK life would have been a living hell there too. But India has been wanting peace all along and have never even bothered to claim its own territory all these years from Pak because India has been more focuussed on development unlike Pakistan who are used to living on international alms and collecting nuclear weapons which it claims to protect itself from India. After Lahore declaration even UN resolution has become null and void because it is now a bilateral issue only. Such amatuer journalists here who make a joke of journalism by writing such poor articles. Wake up and smell the coffee. Mumbai is the truth which Pakistan refuses to acknowledge even after handing over phone trasnscripts between Kasab and terrorist Lakhvi who enjoys all priveleges in Pakistan. Pakistan is ideally supposed to investigate the whole matter which was plotted in Pakistan after the proof given to it by India. If u have so much proof of Kulbushan Yadav sue India if u have it in you. The truth it is all smoke no fire. Even the head of states in Pakistan know that as confirmed by Sartaj Aziz no wonder the top officals are mum there.
great article based on facts #India is supporting harboring terrorism by its proxies in whole of south east asia, it has started it in late 70s, until now bhuton nepal srilanka bangladesh afghanistan Pakistan all have faced Indian dirty terrorism and hundreds of thousands innocent people died and suffered, the good thing is Pakistan is responding in very smart affective way, however I am sure that very soon India will face its consiquences
Any prime intelligence agency would recruit officers from Army , Navy and Air Force so the narrative about him being a retired officer is a non sense. For sure he was working in Iran but he used to visit Pakistan covertly. For sure he had a passport but only because he had to go back to Iran after conducting bomb blasts in Balochistan. He is a professional Terrorist for whom we were looking for years !
hah hah hah … was Iran sleeping ?
You are talking non sense…. We dont need to provide any sort of evidence to the world.. I mean why should we ? LOL.. Sartaj Aziz said that we are collecting more evidence as the interrogation was still in progress at that time but now the interrogation process is complete and now your professional terrorist will be hanged.
This author is a paki dog. Yadav was kidnapped by taliban and gifted to ISI, confirmed by German Authorities.
Kulbhushan Jadhav was abducted my the Taliban in Iranian Balochistan and handed over to ISI for a hefty price.
I hope the author is less biased next time
Donald Smith : iran has already stated that Kulbhushan was not involved in any spying activity. When Gen. Rahil Sharif tried to confront the Iranian President about Kulbhushan Jadhev, he was rudly rebuffed and told in no uncertain terms to buzz off.
read your article my little advice,try to improve Pakistan economy first(despite eveytime blame india in different issuue,India not only is 6 largest economy in world(april 2017 report says 2.442 trillion USD,) but its foriegn exchange reseve stood at $373 Billion (more than pakistan $245 billion usd economy)usd 8 th largest in world, pakistan on other hand only have $21 Billion USD exchange resrve ,not in top 50 ,now genreally exchange reserve use for paying a liabilities can y tell me how pakistan going to pay these money to China on their CPEC Billion China invest on cpec as a loan nealy $60 Billion from their huge $3 Trillion(largest in a world) exchange reserve well IMF already warn these isuue to Pakistan Dawn news publisheddd these issue on their news paper..therefore in 2017 april imf not published latest gdp figure of pakistan .moreover india not only host Commonwealth Games at Dellhi in 2010 but hosted most expensive game in a world (F1 race in Gretar Noida 2011-2013)India dont think Pakistan as serious compitior of India despite China is…………do y know the fact that Indian company Infosys on 3rd may 2017 annouce to hire 10,000 yes 10,000 USA employee in USA to support make usa hire usa policy of Trumph…..think abt the situation in early phase indian people ask to go us for better job, but these days indian comapny hire usa worker…………..