Kalbushan-the title of a nonsense tale
SOME stories always remain alive; the sequence of events and the role played by the actors and no doubt the expertise of their directors never let them die but sometimes such stories carry along with them the foolishness, the stupidity and silliness of the brains they are born in. The pathetic story of the Indian spy Kalbushan Jadhev is also one of those ever living non-sense tales. Kalbushan Jadhev, alias Hussain Mubarek Patel, was apprehended on 3rd March 2016 during a counter-intelligence operation from Mashkel area of Balochistan. That time he was travelling to Pakistan on an Iranian passport attempting to cross over into the country from the Saravan border in Iran. The Pakistani security forces and the intelligence agencies already knew that he was a serving Indian Navy officer and was involved in different incidents of terrorism and in sabotage plans against the state of Pakistan. He was like a guided missile whose cruel rather contemptuous activities on one hand endangered the lives of thousands of Pakistanis and on the other hand defamed Pakistan as a country where no one is safe at the hands of terrorists.
The government of Pakistan, after going through all legal process and investigation, sent the matter to the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) for further legal proceedings where from he was received death sentence in April 2017. From his arrest to the decision of the honourable Field General Court Martial, the government of India kept on disowning him as an officer of the Indian Navy. It was officially stated many times by the Indian government that the arrested spy Kalbushan Jadhev had nothing to do with the Indian Intelligence Network but the record had an altogether story to tell. According to the official record files of the Indian government Jadhev joined the Indian National Defence Academy in 1987 and was commissioned in the engineering branch of the Indian Navy in 1991.
During his service years, he was promoted to the rank of Naval Commander. After sometime he was tipped by the Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing in 2013 and was convinced to pursue subversive activities in Sindh and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. He was assigned the task of holding meetings with so-called ‘Baloach’ insurgents and carrying out terrorist activities all over Pakistan particularly in Sindh and Balochistan. Under the guidance and command of the R&AW, he brought into his contact different criminals of the targeted areas and provided them financial and logistic support for creating disturbance and spreading fear among the common people by kidnapping and killing them.
The Safoora Bus Attack in Karachi was the worst terrorist activity planned by Kalbushan on 13 May 2015. In that incident eight unidentified gunmen opened fire at the innocent passengers and took life of 45 of them; they all belonged to the Ismaili sect. During investigation, Kalbushan admitted his involvement in many terrorist activities in Pakistan and named hundreds of undercover operatives who provided support to their masterminds. He also confessed that he had always been in direct contact with the Indian Prime Minister Mr Modi and with India’s National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ajit Kumar Doval.
After the confessional statement of Kalbushan, Pakistan’s intelligence agencies arrested hundreds of operatives pin-pointed by that R&AW agent who were working to sabotage peace in Pakistan. On 10 April 2017, Jadhev was sentenced to death by the FGCM. In July 2019, the Indian authorities lodged a petition in the International Court of Justice and pleaded for Kalbushan’s conviction to be dismissed but the petition was rejected, however, Pakistan allowed full and unimpeded access of the Indian officials to the terrorist they had always disowned. Furthermore, simply on humanitarian grounds, Kalbushan’s wife and mother were also allowed to have a meeting with him.
The Indian Naval officer Kalbushan Jadhev had been assigned the task of destabilizing peace and calm of Pakistani society by his handlers but he was not informed by his patrons that Pakistan is not an easy surface to land on because it is protected and safeguarded by one of the world’s most competent intelligence agencies, the ISI. Pakistan’s all security institutions including the Army, the Police, the Military Intelligence (MI), the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) all are equipped with the best professional skills and talents; and they all are guided and supported by the ISI. Even the Indian media has so many times acknowledged the professional superiority of the ISI.
Last year on 21st May 2022, one of India’s most esteemed newspapers, the ‘India Today’ published a success story of the ISI which was simply a proof of ISI’s supremacy and ‘hegemony’ over its contemporary intelligence organizations. It was about the arrest of an Indian Army personnel Pradeep Kumar. The paper said, “Pradeep Kumar was arrested for allegedly leaking military information to Pakistan. Kumarcame in contact with the Pakistani woman via Facebook who posed to be an Indian Hindu. He sent images of confidential information related to military and strategic importance to the Pakistani woman, who allegedly works for Inter-Services Intelligence.
Kumar and the Pakistani woman were reportedly in contact with each other via WhatsApp six months ago. According to DG Intelligence Umesh Mishra, Kumar exchanged images of classified documents with the Pak agent via WhatsApp and attempts were made to make other soldiers the scapegoat. Another female friend of Kumar’s was also involved in the crime.” If Kalbushan had a prior knowledge of ISI’s expertise and capability, he would never have thought of doing any adventure on Pakistan’s soil. However, the pathetic destiny of the Indian Naval Commander Kalbushan Jadhev could alert, alarm and save other ‘aspirants’ from such an insulting ending.
