‘Jadhav video another Pak propaganda’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday released another video of Indian death row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav purportedly confessing that he was a commissioned officer of the Indian Navy and that the diplomat who was accompanying his family for the meeting yelled at his mother.
However, the veracity of the video which was released by the Pakistan Foreign Office could not be ascertained.
The video was released days after India had hit out at Pakistan for violating understandings for the Jadhav-family meet and raised questions about the 47-year-old Indian national’s well being.
India had also asserted that Jadhav appeared coerced and under considerable stress during the tightly-controlled interaction on December 25 in the Pakistan Foreign Office.
During the meeting, whose pictures were released by Pakistan, Jadhav was seen sitting behind a glass screen while his mother and wife sat on the other side. They spoke through the intercom, and the entire 40-minute proceedings appeared to have been recorded on video.
In the purported video, Jadhav said, “I saw fear in her (mother’s) eyes, the Indian diplomat was shouting at my mother 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.”
However, it was not clear how Jadhav saw the diplomat shouting at his mother once she stepped out. The diplomat accompanying Jadhav’s family was India’s Deputy High Commissioner in Islamabad.
India on Thursday rebuffed Pakistan for carrying out propagandistic exercises” by putting out “coerced” statements by Kulbhushan Jadhav on video and said such actions by Islamabad carry no 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,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.
Reacting sharply, Kumar said, “The absurdity of a captive under duress certifying his welfare while mouthing allegations of his captors merits no comment.”
He also said that Pakistan is best advised to fulfil its international obligations, whether it pertains to consular relations or UNSC resolutions 1267 and 1373 on terrorism, and to desist from continuing violations of human rights of an Indian national.