ADVERTISEMENT
Pak arrests 'RAW spy', summons Indian envoyNew Delhi seeks consular access
DHNS
Last Updated IST
The former navy officer, Kul Bhushan Yadav, was arrested on Thursday from Quetta, the capital of turbulent Balochistan province of Pakistan. Yadav was accused of being in contact with insurgent leaders of Balochistan.  Picture courtesy Twitter
The former navy officer, Kul Bhushan Yadav, was arrested on Thursday from Quetta, the capital of turbulent Balochistan province of Pakistan. Yadav was accused of being in contact with insurgent leaders of Balochistan. Picture courtesy Twitter
Islamabad issued a demarche to New Delhi on Friday after it arrested a former Indian Navy officer in Balochistan province.

Pakistan claims the former officer was spying for India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale was summoned by Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry where foreign secretary A A Chaudhry lodged a protest and expressed deep concern “on the illegal entry into Pakistan by a RAW officer and his involvement in subversive activities in Balochistan and Karachi”. The former navy officer, Kul Bhushan Yadav, was arrested on Thursday from Quetta, the capital of turbulent Balochistan province of Pakistan. Yadav was accused of being in contact with insurgent leaders of Balochistan.

New Delhi admitted that Yadav had been an official of the Indian Navy, but added that he had “no link with the government since his premature retirement”.

‘India has no interest’
Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup said: “We have sought consular access to him. India has no interest in interfering in internal matters of any country.”

Islamabad’s latest move to once again accuse New Delhi of engineering subversive activities in Pakistan comes ahead of a proposed meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart M Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit to be held between March 31 and April 1 in Washington DC.

Though Pakistan has been accusing India of fomenting trouble in Balochistan, this is the first time a former Indian Navy officer has been arrested there and has been accused of involvement in “subversive activities”.

According to a report by Pakistan’s Geo News, during the preliminary investigation, Yadav has revealed that he had been assigned to sabotage the proposed China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The channel also reported that he had been stationed in the Consulate General of India in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and had entered Pakistan illegally at least 12 times in the past.

Recovery of SIMS
Several Pakistan and Afghanistan mobile phone SIMs have been recovered, the report added. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor  proposes to link Kashgar in Xinjiang in north-western China with the deep sea port at Gwadar in Balochistan in southern Pakistan.

Beijing is planning to spend over $ 46 billion on a series of infrastructure projects along the economic corridor that will pass through areas which India accuses Pakistan of illegal occupation.

New Delhi has already lodged protests against the proposed corridor, both with Pakistan and China, as well as in the United Nations. India has also taken a serious note of the presence of Chinese soldiers in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 26 March 2016, 02:16 IST)