India has termed the move to execute Kulbhusan Yadav a “premeditated murder” by Pakistan.
“If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
According to Times of India, Indian foreign secretary summoned Pakistan High Commisioner to Delhi Abdul Basit, and called the proceedings that led to the sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav “farcical”.
Sources said Yadav, an Indian Navy commander, was posted at Chabahar port in southeastern Iran, where he lived with his wife and two children and possessed a genuine Indian passport but with a fake name.
India had sought consular access to Yadav; however, Pakistan had refused its request.
Relations between the two countries have plummeted since a deadly attack on an Indian army base in Uri in September. There have since been repeated outbreaks of cross-border firing, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries.
The recent surge in terrorist attacks in the country has also brought the India intelligence agencies’ role in backing the terrorism in Pakistan to the spotlight.
Pakistan believes India is using covert means to foment violence in the country with an aim to undermine the multi-billion dollar ‘one belt, one road’ initiative of China.
Security officials claim that RAW was using certain militant outfits operating out of Afghanistan to carryout terrorist attacks in the country.
The current Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is considered to be the architect of this policy called ‘offensive defensive’ that advocates a policy of supporting proxies to create trouble inside Pakistan.