ISLAMABAD: The army has said that the capture of an Indian spy in Balochistan is a proof of India’s interference in Pakistan.

“This is no less than the state-sponsored terrorism,” military spokesman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa said on Tuesday while releasing a six-minute video of confessional statement given by the spy, who identified himself as Kulbhushan Yadav and said he had been operating under the cover name of Hussain Mubarik Patel.

The military spokesman said that Yadav would be prosecuted as per the law of land.

Responding to a question about granting consular access to him as sought by the Indian government, Gen Bajwa said he was caught red-handed while planning subversive activity in Pakistan and a decision in this regard would be taken later.

“We’ll cross the bridge when we come to it. There are lots of technicalities involved in it,” he said.

He said it was a rare incident for a serving military officer to have been caught in another country.

In his statement, Yadav said that he was a resident of Mumbai, where he was commissioned in January 1991, and belonged to Indian Navy’s engineering cadre. He said he held the rank of commander and his service number was 41558Z.

He detailed how he entered the intelligence world and joined RAW in 2013 after which he was assigned the task of promoting unrest in Balochistan and Karachi. He had previously visited Karachi undetected in 2003 and 2004 from Chabahar (Iran), where he had established his jewellery business to conceal his activities.

He disclosed that he worked with Baloch student organisations and other insurgents for carrying out his activities.

He said Anil Kumar Gupta, a RAW officer of the rank of joint secretary, was his supervisor.

Yadav said he was arrested on March 3, 2016, and was voluntarily giving the statement and cooperating with his investigators.

Gen Bajwa said the primary task given to Yadav was to revive the dying Balochistan insurgency and sabotage China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Yadav, he said, was planning to attack the Gwadar Hotel where Chinese were staying and where there was presence of a sectarian organisation.

The spokesman said they had planned to bring in 30-40 trained RAW operatives to coordinate and help in reviving the Baloch insurgency.

IRANIAN ROLE: The spokesman said that he could not say with certainty, or even knew, if the Iranian government or its intelligence was aware of RAW carrying out its intelligence operation from its soil.

He said Iran had been urged to stop these activities, which the Iranian officials agreed to.

Gen Bajwa said that besides taking up the matter with President Rouhani, during his visit to Islamabad, the information had also been passed to the Iranian intelligence agency. That communication, he said, was continuing and was positive.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2016