NEW DELHI: India on Thursday sought immediate consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer who has been arrested by Pakistan on espionage charges. The demand has come a day after Pakistani media quoted Advisor to Pakistan’s Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs as saying that evidence against Jadhav has been ‘inconclusive”.
“We have seen conflicting media reports about this issue. This is a pattern we have seen in the past as well. Government has always maintained that Pakistan's allegations against Jadhav, an Indian national and a former Indian Navy officer, were completely baseless,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Vikas Swarup told reporters here. India has sent 8 Note Verbales to Pakistan Foreign office to get consular access to Jadhav.
“Even after more than nine months of keeping him wrongfully and illegally in custody, Pakistani authorities have not found a shred of evidence against him. We demand immediate consular access to him in accordance with relevant international conventions and his earliest release from wrongful confinement,” Swarup added.
The Ministry has also received some communication from Pakistan about the health Hamid Nehal Ansari, an engineer who is also incarcerated in Pakistan. “Our Mission is closely following up this matter and has issued more than forty-two Note Verbales to the Pakistan Foreign Office. In response to our latest Note Verbale dated November 15, Pakistan responded on November 25 stating that concerned authorities in Pakistan are ‘mindful of their responsibilities regarding Hamid Nehal Ansari who is safe, secure and in good health’,” Swarup said.
Pakistan is yet to provide us consular access to Ansari. His parents had even reached Amritsar to seek release of their son, who had reached Pakistan via Afghanistan looking for a girl with whom he fell in love over internet.