Pakistan would hand over a dossier on alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and evidence of attempted violation of maritime boundary by an Indian submarine to incoming UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday, his first working day after assuming office.
Pakistan’s Permanent UN representative Maleeha Lodhi will officially pass on the dossier to Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York, Dawn reported, citing officials.
“Soon after assuming office incoming UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will get a feel of Pak-India rivalry as Islamabad is set to raise the issue of Indian interference with him,” the paper said.
Pakistan claims that Jadhav, an Indian navy officer and an alleged operative of India’s intelligence agency RAW, was caught by its security forces earlier this year. His capture was announced in March and was flaunted by military as “proof of Indian interference and state-sponsored terrorism”.
The government, which had pledged to expose alleged Indian hand in terrorism in Pakistan, domestically faced a lot of criticism for the delay in presenting to the international community evidence of Jadhav’s alleged involvement in subversive activities.
Responding to criticism in the Senate, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz had on December 7 said that “insufficient material” had been delaying the finalisation of the dossier.
“It is not that material has been provided and it’s lacking in English and we are overcoming it. The (provided) material, in our view, was insufficient,” Aziz had told a meeting of the Senate Committee of the Whole House.
“The required additional information” has now been made available and the dossier has been completed, the paper said, citing the officials.
The officials did not share the specifics, but said it would contain proofs that India was allegedly patronising terrorism in Pakistan.
The new UN chief would also be informed about the attempt by an Indian submarine to “intrude into Pakistani waters before it was spotted and forced to abandon the mission”, the paper said.
The submarine incident, which happened last month, coincided with the fourth Pak-China joint naval exercise for promoting maritime security and stability in the region and the start of shipping activity under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor from Gwadar.
Lodhi had in October 2015 presented three dossiers to the then secretary general Ban Ki-moon, which were said to be containing proofs of alleged Indian interference in Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Karachi.
But, the move did not get much traction.
When the attention of the officials was invited to the “credibility deficit” that Pakistan internationally faces, they expressed the hope that the UN would look into the fresh evidence that would be placed before it.