–Kulbhushan Jadhav thanks Pakistan for arranging meeting with family, says his mother was happy to see him ‘healthy and well
ISLAMABAD: Convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav in a video released by the Foreign Office after critical Indian media coverage of his Christmas meeting with his family in Islamabad said he “saw fear” in his mother’s eyes and that an Indian diplomat accompanying her had “yelled at her”.
In the latest statement, Jadhav re-asserted that he is still a commissioned officer of the Indian Navy.
“I have to say one thing very important here, for the Indian public, Indian government and the Indian navy, that my commission is not gone. I am a commissioned officer in the Indian navy.”
Jadhav further said that he saw fear in his mother’s eyes when he met his family on December 25, which Pakistan arranged on humanitarian grounds.
“I saw fear in her eyes, the Indian diplomat [who was present at the meeting] was shouting at my mother the moment she stepped out [of the meeting room]. I saw him shouting, yelling at her. It looked like my mother had been beaten and brought here on a plane. This [meeting] was a positive gesture [by the Pakistan government], so that she [my mother] could be happy and I could be happy,” he says in the video.
Thanking Pakistan for arranging the meeting with his family, Jadhav said in the video that his mother was happy to see him healthy and well.
“The [Pakistan government] is taking care of me, my mother saw me.. she was happy to see me healthy and well. I thank Pakistan [for the meeting].”
He assured viewers that he had “not been subjected to any sort of torture in Pakistan”.
‘PAKISTAN CONTINUING PRACTICE OF PUTTING OUT ‘COERCED’ STATEMENTS’:
Meanwhile, India has criticised Pakistan for releasing another confessional video of Kulbhushan Jadhav, terming it “an exercise in state propaganda which lacks any credibility”.
“This does not come as a surprise. Pakistan is simply continuing its practice of putting out coerced statements on video. It is time for them to realise that such propagandistic exercises simply carry no credibility,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
On December 25, Jadhav’s wife and mother had met the Indian spy, who is on death row, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.
In a statement, the Foreign Office had said Pakistan permitted the convicted Indian spy to meet his family members on humanitarian grounds.
Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, was arrested in Pakistan on espionage charges.
He was captured by security forces on March 3, 2016, in Balochistan and sentenced to death by a military tribunal earlier this year for his involvement in terrorism and espionage.
His appeals against the conviction have been rejected by the military appellate court and his mercy petition has been lying with Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.
India has challenged Pakistan’s refusal to grant consular access to the spy in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The ICJ is hearing the case and has restrained the Pakistan government from executing Jadhav until it decides the case.
