New Delhi, January 4 (NDTV): Pakistan has released another propaganda video of Kulbhushan Jadhav in which he is purportedly heard saying that an Indian diplomat yelled at his mother when she and his wife visited the foreign office in Islamabad to meet him last week. The Indian national has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on allegations of spying. The video, India said, is not a surprise. “Pakistan is simply continuing its practice of putting out coerced statements on video. It is time for them to realzse that such propagandistic exercises simply carry no credibility,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Pakistan had allowed Kulbhushan Jadhav’s mother and wife to meet him on December 25 and tweeted photos of the 45-minute meeting as part of fresh propaganda ahead of the hearing of India’s appeal against Mr Jadhav’s death sentence at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In the new video, played out by Pakistan’s foreign office at a press briefing on Wednesday, Mr Jadhav is heard saying, “I saw fear in the eyes of my mother and wife. Why should there be fear? Whatever has happened has happened. They felt threatened. The Indian diplomat who had come along with my mother was shouting the moment she stepped out. I saw him shouting, yelling at her. This [meeting] was a positive gesture, so that she (my mother) could be happy and I could be happy”.
It was, however, not clear how Mr Jadhav could see anything that happened once his mother stepped out of the room. In photos tweeted by Islamabad after the meeting, he was seen sitting behind a glass pane and communicating with his mother and wife, who were on the other side, through intercom.
India’s Deputy High Commissioner in Islamabad, JP Singh, was behind another glass plane and what was said between Jadhav and his wife and wife and was not audible to him.
He is also heard “thanking” Pakistani officials and repeating his earlier statements, which have been rubbished by India as “manufactured” and “tutored”.
Government sources said the video indicated that Pakistan was under pressure. “Since they could not answer our objections after the meeting between Jadhav and his family, they want to change the narrative,” an official said. The other idea, he said, could be to shift focus from the US pressure and the domestic chaos.
India had slammed Pakistan following the tightly-controlled meeting, accusing Islamabad of harassing Mr Jadhav’s mother and wife – forcing them to change their clothes and not allowing Mr Jadhav’s mother to speak in her mother tongue. The shoes of Mr Jadhav’s wife Chetankul, were not returned and
Mr Jadhav appeared under considerable stress during the meeting, India said.
In a lacerating statement, Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj told parliament that Mr Jadhav was forced to see his mother and wife in the form of “widows” as their mangalsutra, bindi and bangles — symbols of marriage — were taken away in the name of security.
It was, however, not clear how Mr Jadhav could see anything that happened once his mother stepped out of the room. In photos tweeted by Islamabad after the meeting, he was seen sitting behind a glass pane and communicating with his mother and wife, who were on the other side, through intercom. India’s Deputy High Commissioner in Islamabad, JP Singh, was present during the meeting.
He is also heard “thanking” Pakistani officials and repeating his earlier statements, which have been rubbished by India as “manufactured” and “tutored”.
Government sources said the video indicated that Pakistan was under pressure. “Since they could not answer our objections after the meeting between Jadhav and his family, they want to change the narrative,” an official said. The other idea, he said, could be to shift focus from the US pressure and the domestic chaos.
India had slammed Pakistan following the tightly-controlled meeting, accusing Islamabad of harassing Mr Jadhav’s mother and wife – forcing them to change their clothes and not allowing Mr Jadhav’s mother to speak in her mother tongue. The shoes of Mr Jadhav’s wife Chetankul, were not returned and
Mr Jadhav appeared under considerable stress during the meeting, India said.
In a lacerating statement, Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj told parliament that Mr Jadhav was forced to see his mother and wife in the form of “widows” as their mangalsutra, bindi and bangles — symbols of marriage — were taken away in the name of security.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM1XQJ4hvPI
