ISLAMABAD: Sparring between Pakistan and India over convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav continued on Thursday as the Foreign Office released a video message in which Jadhav accused Indian authorities of intimidating his mother and wife during their trip to Islamabad.

“My wife and mother have really been battered and troubled and brought here. I thought they have been beaten all along in the plane… This is not done this way. This is not a pleasant thing,” Jadhav said in the video message addressed to the “Indian public” and “Indian government”.

The video clip was shown to journalists at the weekly media briefing of the Foreign Office. It was apparently recorded on Dec 25 after the Indian spy, who has been sentenced to death by a military tribunal and is waiting for a decision on his mercy petition, met his mother and wife at the Foreign Office in an interaction allowed by the Pakistan government on humanitarian grounds.

The Pakistani gesture turned into a diplomatic spat between the two estranged neighbours soon after the meeting as India accused Pakistan of violating the conditions agreed for it.

In a video released by FO, the convicted spy asserts he is still a commissioned officer of Indian Navy

The allegations levelled by India included “restriction on Jadhav’s family for conversing in the mother tongue; disregard of religious and cultural sensibilities on the pretext of security by making them change their attire, and remove mangalsutra and bindi; not allowing Indian Deputy High Commissioner J.P. Singh to observe the meeting from the start; and harassing of the family by media personnel”.

The Pakistan government denied the allegations and maintained that the extraordinary nature of the meeting warranted special security measures. The row was followed by a momentary pause in exchanging of barbs by the two countries in the second half of last week when the National Security Advisers of the two countries secretly met in Bangkok.

In his video message, Jadhav thanked both Islamabad and New Delhi for working together to make the meeting happen, but noted that he was saddened to see his mother under duress. “My mother was under shock,” he said while sharing his impressions from the nearly 40 minutes he spent with his family in the first meeting since being seized in Balochistan in March 2016.

He accused the Indian deputy high commissioner, who accompanied Jadhav’s family members to the meeting, of being rude to his mother.

“This [Pakistani] gesture [of allowing the meeting] was a positive gesture so that she [mother] feels happy, I feel happy and there is an Indian diplomat yelling at her,” Jadhav said adding that the diplomat shouted and yelled at his mother soon after she stepped out of the meeting venue.

The Indian spy said he could see “fear in the eyes” of his mother and wife, who he believed had been “briefed very strongly” before the meeting.

Jadhav used the video message to deny torture during his captivity and re-emphasise his good health. “They have taken care of me. They have not harmed me. They have not touched me,” he maintained and said his mother was “satisfied” and “very relaxed” after physically seeing him in “a good shape”.

He also took exception to the Indian government’s act of denying that he was a serving Naval officer. “My commission is not gone. I’m a commissioned officer of Indian Navy,” he said.

“Why my commission and that I was working for an intelligence agency is being denied. What is the whole issue? I was doing a cover business … that is OK. I stand by that. I was doing something for RAW [Research and Analysis Wing] and I was a soldier and I was doing something for my country,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, India’s Ministry of External Affairs rejected Jadhav’s video statement as a “propagandistic exercise” lacking credibility.

APP adds: Answering a question at his media briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said Pakistan was “always ready” to start a composite dialogue with India.

It was India that had stopped the dialogue process on the pretext of the Pathankot militant attack. “Pakistan has never been reluctant to find a political solution to our disputes,” he added.

In response to a question about Afghan refugees, he said Pakistan had never created a “push factor” for them even after hosting them for three decades. Pakistan had been hosting them despite its economic difficulties.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2018