India has sent 6 note verbales to the Pakistan’s foreign ministry in order to get in touch with spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, according to a government official.
A note verbale is an unsigned diplomatic communication which is less formal than a letter of protest but is used to forcefully remind the receiving nation of its diplomatic obligations. Official sources said India will continue to seek consular access to Jadhav.
While Pakistan claims that Jadhav is a commander-rank officer with Indian navy, India maintains that he retired from the navy in 2002 and had nothing to do with the Indian government when he was arrested from Balochistan.
“India has relentlessly sought access to Jadhav. And we don’t believe that he is a spy because had he been one, he wouldn’t have been carrying an Indian passport,” said a source.
Jadhav’s Indian passport was in the name of Hussein Mubarak Patel. Islamabad has used the arrest of Jadhav at every international forum to drum up support for its contention that India’s external intelligence agency, RAW, was fomenting terrorism in Balochistan.
It has repeatedly briefed envoys of EU and P-5 nations about Jadhav’s “subversive activities” in Balochistan. Pakistan foreign ministry last week said in a report to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs that its claims about India’s involvement in Balochistan had been vindicated by “serving RAW officer”
Jadhav’s confessions and Indian PM Narendra Modi’s comments on August 15 in which he reached out to the people of Balochistan.
