Pak letter on Jadhav is propaganda designed to provoke India

Vivek Katju

Ex-secretary, Ministry of External Affairs

On January 23, 2017, Pakistan requested India for “assistance in the investigation of a case registered against Kulbhushan Jadhav”. It sent a letter of assistance seeking India’s “support” for “obtaining evidence, material and record for the criminal investigation”. An examination of the letter of assistance and its annexures shows that the entire exercise, apart from being shoddy, was entirely propagandistic.

The letter stated that Jadhav had “revealed the names of the following handler organisations/persons/accomplices, facilitators and co-conspirators”. A list of thirteen names was given, including those of “Alok Joshi, former head of R&AW, Admiral [Sureesh] Mehta, former Navy Chief, S K Das, Counsel (sic) General of India in Zahidan”. Most surprising was the inclusion, at Number 10 on the list, of the “wife of accused Kulbhusan Sudhair (sic) Jadhav (alias Mubarak Hussain Patel)”. All this is designed to be provocative, Jadhav’s wife’s name’s inclusion particularly so. Why?

The original FIR against Jadhav was recorded on April 8, 2016. In this, Jadhav purportedly states that he was working under the direct instructions, command and authorisation from Anil Kumar Gupta, Joint Secretary of R&AW. No other name has been mentioned. However, earlier, on March 29, 2016, in a press conference, Major General Asim Bajwa, Director-General of the Inter-Services Press Relations (ISPR), had stated that Jadhav had revealed the names of the Indian NSA, the head of R&AW, and Gupta as his handlers. These names don’t figure in this FIR.

Months later, a supplementary FIR was registered on September 6, 2016, against “handler organisations/persons/accomplices and facilitators” of “Kulbhushan Sudhair Jadhav”. In this FIR it was stated that during joint interrogation and recording of confessional statement under Section 164 of the Cr.PC, Jadhav had revealed the names of, inter alia, Ajit Kumar Doval, NSA, India; Alok Joshi, RAW, India; and Admiral Mehta, ex-CNS, Indian Navy. It is most noteworthy that the name of Jadhav’s wife has not been included in this FIR.

Clearly, the letter of assistance has omitted the NSA’s name, which is there in the September FIR, but has included Jadhav’s wife’s name, which is not mentioned in it. The exclusion of Doval’s name is obviously deliberate, but it shows Pakistan’s intent to score propaganda points because it has mentioned it in the FIR. Pakistan would have known that the inclusion of Jadhav’s wife’s name would be found very offensive in India. The name of a retired officer’s wife is never dragged in such matters. Family members are never made part of inter-state disputes. If a country includes the name of a family member, unsupported by any document, as has been done in this case, it is only to needle. Hence, the provocation.

India and Pakistan have refrained from personally charging senior officers with criminal offences. They have not even sought to examine senior officers in cases relating to terrorism. Even in the Mumbai case, while middle-level ISI officials were mentioned, and correctly, for there was objective evidence, senior officers were not named. Pakistan has crossed the Lakshman Rekha; hence also the provocation.

Other names mentioned in the letter of assistance are purportedly of officers of Indian Naval Intelligence and of R&AW. A name of a Mumbai resident is also included.

India did well to reject this propaganda exercise in its entirety. It simply returned the original letter of assistance sent by Pakistan.

Also read:

Jadhav hearing: India accuses Pak of misusing ICJ for propaganda