ISLAMABAD: Pakistan released a fresh video of convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav that shows him accusing an Indian diplomat of ‘shouting and yelling’ at his mother after their meeting in Islamabad last month.
The video released by the Foreign Office appears to be recorded soon after Jadhav’s 40-minute interaction with his mother and wife on December 25.
Looking sharp and fit in dark brown blazer, the Indian Naval Commander thanked Pakistan for ‘showing this grand gesture’ to allow his mother and wife to meet him.
“It was [a] very pleasant one and my mother was basically very happy to see me in good state and physical fitness. She was really very satisfied,” Jadhav said. He also mentioned that his mother was ‘very relaxed’ after seeing him in good health and also gave him ‘Dua’.
Jadhav said Pakistani authorities were taking good care of him. “I have never been harmed or touched,” he further said.
“I have something very important to say here to the Indian people, the government and the Indian navy: I am a commissioned officer in the Indian Navy — my commission is not over,” he said in the video, adding that his family ‘was threatened’.
“I saw fear in the eyes of my mother and wife — why should there be fear? What all has happened has happened,” he said.
“They have been threatened. The Indian diplomat or Indian person, who came along with my mother and wife, was shouting at my mother the moment she stepped out… he was yelling at her. Has she been brought under threat here?” he wondered, saying that it appeared as if they had been beaten up all along in the plane.
The Indian spy said he felt sad that all this had happened despite the positive gesture shown by the government of Pakistan.
He once again reminded India that he was a serving naval commander and working for RAW. He said he did not understand why the Indian authorities were denying all this.
He then went on to ask how long Pakistan and India would remain engaged in hostility. “We in India and Pakistan subsequently have to forget our enmity and go in a positive direction,” he said.
In the end, Jadhav thanked both Pakistan and Indian governments for the arranging the meeting with his wife and mother.
This was the fourth video and the second in two weeks issued by Pakistan in which Jadhav admitted that he was an Indian spy working for RAW.
Following the December 25 meeting, tensions between the two countries flared up after India accused Pakistan of not honouring the ground rules agreed for the high-profile interaction.
Pakistan dismissed the Indian claims and insisted that its humanitarian gesture should have been acknowledged.
In the immediate aftermath of the fallout of Jadhav’s meeting with his family, India refused to grant visas to around 200 Pakistanis intending to participate in the annual Urs of Hazrat Khawaja Nizamuddin Aulia in Delhi.
Speaking at a press conference, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said Pakistan regretted the last-minute postponement and non-issuance of visas by India to 192 Pakistani pilgrims who wanted to participate in the Urs starting from January 1 in Delhi.
“This is indeed unfortunate and runs counter to the letter and spirit of the 1974 protocol and objective of people-to-people contacts,” the spokesperson said, adding that it was also violative of the bilateral protocol and the basic human right to religious freedoms.
“Such measures also undermine the efforts aimed at improving the environment, increasing people-to-people contacts and normalising relations between the two countries,” he lamented.
“It is ironic that this was done on the occasion of the Urs of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya who remains a symbol of bringing communities closer to each other. Subsequently, Indians have not allowed their blind cricket team to visit Pakistan,” Faisal further said.
