India failed to respond over authenticity of Kulbhushan's passport: FO

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday said India had failed to respond to the authenticity of Kulbhushan Jadhav's passport. 

Commander Jadhav — an on-duty Indian navy officer working for Indian covert agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) — was arrested on March 3, 2016, from Balochistan, after he entered into Pakistan from Iran.

In a weekly press briefing, FO Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said India is yet to confirm if the passport, issued to one Hussein Mubarak Patel, is Jadhav's passport. 

The FO spokesperson further said that India had approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Jhadav's matter. Pakistan had then submitted its response to Indian objections in the case, however, India had failed to answer questions raised about Jhadav's passport. 

According to the foreign office, Jhadav has travelled to India seventeen times, using the same passport. India has also failed to submit documents pertaining to Jhadav's retirement, Dr Faisal said. 

'Pakistan won't be frightened by attacks' 

Speaking about the recent terrorist attacks on election hopefuls and politicians, the FO spokesperson said that Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's citizens were aggrieved by the incidents but Pakistan won't be frightened by these attacks. 

Four terrorist attacks have taken place in the current month, with two proving fatal for Awami National Party (ANP) leader Haroon Bilour and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) leader Nawab Siraj Raisani. 

"The process of democratic polls continues in Pakistan," he said. 

'Indian human rights violations continue in IoK' 

Dr Faisal, in the weekly press briefing, said Indian violations of human rights in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) had not stopped. 

"Indian occupation forces martyred 23 Kashmiris in the past week," he said, adding that a United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) report had unmasked Indian atrocities in IoK. 

The FO spokesperson urged the international community to take notice of Indian violations of human rights in IoK.