 "Kulbhushan Jadhav")
The day that started on an emotional note for the family of former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who met him on Monday after a long wait, turned into a nightmare after the Pakistan media blatantly harassed them.
This was not for the first time that such treatment was meted out to the kin of Indian captives by the neighbouring country.
Drawing a parallel with the situation, Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, who died in a Pakistan jail in 2013, said that she had faced the same treatment when she went to Islamabad for the release of his brother.
"I can see the same scenario what I had faced in Pakistan. This is nothing new. They do everything with proper planning. They make the convicts to speak what they want. I was also harassed by them. They did not allow us to talk. They did not give enough time," Kaur told ANI.
Jadhav's mother Avanti and wife Chetankul were heckled by the journalists outside the heavily guarded foreign ministry office in Islamabad.
Also Read
His wife was bombarded with questions like "what she would say on his husband's act of killing thousands of innocent Pakistanis? ('aapke patidev ne hazaron begunah Pakistaniyo ke khoon se Holi kheli ispar kya kahengi?)"
They also humiliated his aged mother by asking, "What are your feeling after meeting your killer son (aapke kya jazbaat hain apne kaatil bete se milne ke baad)?"
The treatment meted out by Pakistani media to them has riled up India.
Defence Expert S K Chatterjee also slammed Pakistan for heckling Jadhav's family and said that the treatment was uncalled for.
The Pakistan foreign authorities, too, continued in their bid of harrowing Jadhav's family as they made them remove their mangalsutras, bangles, and bindi, besides making them change their attire citing "security" reasons.
"The whole nation has witnessed that how Pakistan behaved with those two innocent women. Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother was heckled very badly by them. Some of them used very abusive language to address them. There was no requirement of such behaviour from their side. His wife was forced to take off her mangalsutra, slippers, hair pin, etc. Those ladies are really very unfortunate and they were treated very badly," Chatterjee told ANI.
The meeting of Avanti and Chentakul, who met him on Monday at Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry in Islamabad, was not an ordinary one as they were separated by a glass barrier.
The mother-wife duo was issued visas by the Pakistan authorities on humanitarian grounds on December 20.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Pakistan disregarded the cultural and religious sensibilities of Jadhav's family.
Jadhav was arrested in Balochistan, Pakistan, over charges of alleged involvement in espionage and subversive activities for India's intelligence agency - the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
India, however, maintains that Jadhav is a former Indian naval officer and that he was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.
On April 10, 2017, Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Field General Court Martial (FGCM) in Pakistan.
On May 18, 2017, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stayed the hanging, after India approached it against the death sentence.
India has appealed to the court to impose emergency measures for Jadhav's execution to be suspended until the legal battle in Hague concludes, while also accusing Pakistan of violating the Vienna Convention by failing to provide him with consular access and for being in breach of international human rights law.
Pakistan has repeatedly rejected India's plea for consular access to Jadhav at the ICJ, alleging he was not an ordinary person and had entered the country with an intent of spying and carrying out sabotage activities.
