The Foreign Office spokesperson, Dr. Mohammad Faisal, gave a rundown on the meeting between arrested Indian naval officer, Kulbashan Yadev and his mother, Aventi and wife, Chetona, held today at the foreign office.
The meeting started with a brief recorded 90-second video of Kulbashan Yadev, the Indian naval officer, Pakistan has accused of espionage and terrorism. The video was recorded before he met his mother and wife in which he confirmed his official designation and number in the Indian naval force. He expressed his thanks to Pakistan for allowing the meeting with his mother and wife on humanitarian grounds and said he was being treated with honor and dignity respect. “I requested a meeting with my wife and mother and I am thankful to Government of Pakistan for this grand gesture,”
Pakistan has demanded to see his naval records and the statement from his last serving Superior officer as well as his pension records and bank statements showing that he has been receiving his pension from 2003 as claimed by the Indian government.
Meeting being given on ‘humanitarian grounds’
Dr. Faisal reiterated that the meeting had been granted by Pakistan on humanitarian grounds and as also advised by Islamic traditions. Dr. Faisal announced to the media that the Indian diplomat present, JP Singh, India’s Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan at the Indian High Commission, was seated in a separate glass enclosure from Kulbhushan’s mother and wife. JP Singh could watch the meeting but could not hear or listen to what was being said during this meeting. Dr. Faisal informed the media that the Indian government had been informed that this is how the meeting would be conducted to ensure complete security to the participants. Even the clothes the two women arrived in were changed. The meeting which lasted for 40 minutes, extended by 10 minutes from the allocated time of 30 minutes was done so upon request from Yadev and his wife. Kulbhushan’s Mother thanked the Pakistani government for allowing the meeting to take place.
read more: Kulbhashan Jadhav had also planned the attack on Pakistani Consulate in Zahedan
Jadhav’s family traveled to Islamabad on a commercial flight from Oman and will return on a 6.16pm flight from Islamabad to Muscat and from there to Delhi tonight. JP Singh arrived with the family members from Delhi, where he had been for the past five days.
JP Singh, India’s Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan at the Indian High Commission, was seated in a separate glass enclosure from Kulbhushan’s mother and wife.
Kulbhushan Yadev has confessed to planning, coordinating and organizing terrorism on the instructions of India’s RAW agency. Dr Faisal stated that Kulbhushan’s remit was to “sabotage, destabilize and wage war against Pakistan.” “Let us be very clear that commander Jadhav is the face of Indian terrorism,” he said. He has confessed to being behind the high profile killing of SSP Aslam Chaudhury in Karachi as well as the Mehran Naval base attack in 2011 in which 12 people died.
read more: Indian conditions in response to Pakistan’s gesture to allow Yadev meet…
Meeting poses issues for Indian government
The meeting posed a problem for the Indian government who had claimed that he had been arrested from Iran. The spokesperson, Dr Faisal, that it has raised this amongst other issues in their letter of assistance sent to Delhi in January 2017, how come he has a ‘fake’ authentic Indian passport on a Muslim name, Hussain Mubarak Patel; which he had used to travel over 17 times out of India to many other countries apart from Iran, Thailand and Malaysia. His passport was also renewed in 2015. Kulbhashan was arrested March 3, 2017 from Balochistan.
Pakistan has demanded to see his naval records and the statement from his last serving Superior officer as well as his pension records and bank statements showing that he has been receiving his pension from 2003 as claimed by the Indian government.
Dr. Faisal said that Pakistan had nothing to hide and the government offered that the family could have a press briefing – with international, Pakistani and Indian media – after the meeting which was turned down by the Indian government.
Pakistan has given a list of 15 persons to India – a list given by Kulbushan Yadev for his defense – his wife was one of the 15. India has not accepted that his wife comes and record her statement in his defense in Pakistan.
read more: ICJ verdict allows Pakistan to show the real Machiavellian India
Pakistan has asserted clearly that consular access in cases of terrorism is not determined by the Vienna Convention as wanted by the Indians but based on the bilateral treaty the two signed on this exact issue.
Indian reaction – media and the Indian government will start becoming visible in the next several hours.