On death row already, Kulbhushan Jadhav now faces another case in Pakistan

There seems to be no end to the woes of former Navy commander Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is on death row in Pakistan. Jadhav, who was in 2017 convicted and sentenced to death by a military tribunal in Pakistan on spying charges, is now facing trial for terrorism and sabotage.

Pakistan-based news organisation Dawn quoted a Pakistani official as saying that Jadhav has multiple cases against him wherein he has been indicted on charges on terror and sabotage.

This comes even as the International Court of Justice had last year restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav till adjudication of the case. In its application, India had informed the ICJ that it learnt about the death sentence against Jadhav from a press release.

Meanwhile, the ICJ had in January mandated the time-limits for India and Pakistan to file the written pleadings in Kulbhushan Jadhav case. While India has been asked to submit the pleadings on April 17, 2018, Pakistan will have to submit the same on July 17, 2018.

Kulbhushan Jadhav, 47, who was arrested in March last year, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged spying, an accusation that India has dismissed as concocted.

Pakistan had claimed that its security forces arrested Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel from restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2017, after he reportedly entered from Iran. India, however, said that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.

Earlier in January, Pakistan had released a video of the jailed Indian, wherein Jadhav thanked the country for its gesture of letting him meet his wife and mother.

In the video, Jadhav said that he felt that his mother and wife were scared during the meeting as an Indian diplomat was shouting at them. He also said that he was in good health. “My mother was very happy to see me in healthy condition,” Jadhav said in the video.

Reacting to it, India slammed Islamabad saying that 'propagandistic exercises simply carry no credibility.'

"This does not come as a surprise. Pakistan is simply continuing its practice of putting out coerced statements on video. It is time for them to realise that such propagandistic exercises simply carry no credibility," the Ministry of External Affairs had said in a statement.

It added, "Absurdity of a captive under duress certifying his own welfare while mouthing allegations of his captors clearly merits no comment."