NEW DELHI: Any move to execute an Indian convicted by a Pakistani court-martial of spying would be ‘premeditated murder’, New Delhi warned Islamabad on Monday. India’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit to protest the death sentencing of Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav at a court-martial which was closed to the public. New Delhi claims there is no evidence against Jadhav, whom the Indian media have described as a former naval officer, calling the proceedings against him ‘farcical’. Pakistan says he was arrested in the southwestern province of Balochistan last year, but India alleges he was ‘kidnapped’ in Iran. In a letter issued to Basit and later released to the media, the foreign ministry said India’s government had repeatedly sought consular access to Jadhav which was not permitted. “If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing the basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder,” stated the letter.
