Judgment positive, hopefully, Pakistan will realize their mistake and return Jadhav: VK Singh

Union Minister Gen (retired) VK Singh on Thursday hailed the Kulbhushan Jadhav verdict and asserted that the positive judgment may make Pakistan realize their mistake.

Speaking to ANI on the International Court of Justice's verdict delivered yesterday, Singh said, "The judgement is positive. With a judgment of 15:1 they have supported what we have said. It is visible that ICJ has honoured the basic conventions of law and justice and India has been successful in its mission".

On being asked about whether India will further exhort more pressure on Pakistan for resolution of this issue, he said, "The way they had abducted Kulbhushan and filed a fake case, we believe something must be done about it. Hopefully, Pakistan will realise the mistake that they have made and will take action to ensure that Kulbhushan Jadhav gets justice and is returned to India. "

His reaction comes after the ICJ on Wednesday continued its stay on the execution of the Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, held in a Pakistani jail on allegations of spying, and called for an effective review and reconsideration of the conviction.

Jadhav, 49, was purportedly "arrested" from Balochistan by Pakistani security forces on March 3, 2016, after he allegedly entered the country from Iran, as claimed by Islamabad.India has held that Pakistan, which faces several problems on its border with Iran, has been using Jadhav's case to blame India for its problems in Balochistan. It has used proxy groups such as Jaish al Adl against Iran, while Iranian officials have spoken of Pakistan's sponsorship of terror activities along the Iran-Pakistan border.

It was on March 25, 2016, that then Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, had informed the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad of Jadhav's "arrest."

Since then, Pakistan has not offered any explanation as to why Islamabad took over three weeks to inform the Indian High Commissioner about Jadhav's arrest.

Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on April 11, 2017.

Following this, India on May 8, 2017, approached the ICJ against Pakistan "for egregious violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963" in the matter.

India alleged that Pakistan is in breach of Article 36(1) (b) of the Vienna Convention, which obliged Pakistan to inform India of the arrest of Jadhav "without delay".