India summons Pakistani envoy over death sentence to alleged spy

India said on Monday that if Islamabad carried out the death sentence handed down to one of its nationals for alleged spying in Pakistan, New Delhi would treat it as "a case of premeditated murder."

Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar summoned the Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit to the External Affairs Ministry in Delhi and said: "If this sentence against an Indian citizen ... is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder."

India's reaction came hours after a military court in Pakistan awarded death sentence to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav for alleged spying in that country.

In a statement, Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations said Jadhav, who was living as Hussein Mubarak Patel, was arrested on March 3 last year through a "Counter Intelligence Operation" from Balochistan's Mashkel.

The statement also said Jadhav was arrested for his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan, and he has been tried through the Field General Court Martial (FCGM) and was sentenced to death.

In March last year, Islamabad even released a video confession of Jadhav, saying he revealed how India engineers violence and separatism in the restive province of Balochistan.

While Pakistan claims Jadhav was arrested near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border of Chaman in Balochistan over illegal entry into the country, India insists the former naval officer was abducted by Pakistan from Iran.

Source: Xinhua