India on Monday issued a demarche to Pakistan after a military court in the neighbouring country sentenced former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav to death.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, to his office in South Block and made it clear to him that if the death-sentence awarded to Jadhav was carried out, the Government and people of India would regard it as a case of premeditated murder.
New Delhi said that Jadhav had been kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan had never been explained credibly. “The Government of India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law. Requests to that effect were formally made 13 times between March 25, 2016 and March 31, 2017. This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities,” the Ministry of External Affairs noted in the demarche Foreign Secretary gave to High Commissioner of Pakistan.
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