NEW DELHI: India has cancelled maritime talks with Pakistan, a development seen as a fallout of the death penalty handed down to its spy Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistan. The talks were scheduled to be held between April 16 and 19.
Sources said on Saturday that the talks between India’s Coast Guard and Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency (MSA) in New Delhi on issues related to fishermen and search and rescue operations had been scrapped for the time being.
“The Indian Defense Ministry has, in fact, not given its nod to the visit of a delegation of MSA officials on April 16. So, the maritime talks between India and Pakistan have been called off,” sources said.
The development came amid tension between the two countries over Jadhav’s death sentence and a day after India criticised Pakistan for not disclosing his location as well as not giving consular access to him as per international conventions, despite repeated requests.
India on Monday made it clear to Pakistan that if Islamabad carried out the death sentence handed down to the spy, then New Delhi would treat it as “a case of premeditated murder”. Jadhav was given death penalty earlier this week by a military court in Pakistan for spying in that country, which was later confirmed by Pakistani Army chief General Qamar Bajwa. The Inter-Services Public Relations had said Jadhav was arrested on March 3 last year from Balochistan’s Mashkel area.
