New Delhi: Day after meeting former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav in Islamabad, his wife and mother returned to India and met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday morning.
Jadhav’s father was also accompanying his mother and wife to Swaraj’s residence in New Delhi. Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh, who went to Islamabad with the family, was also accompanying the family on Tuesday.
Foreign Secretary Jaishankar also attended the brief meeting with Swaraj.
Kulbhushan Jadhav, on death row in Pakistan for alleged spying, met his family members at the Pakistan Foreign Office on Monday but was separated by a glass screen, in a carefully choreographed event that unfolded in tweets, photos and TV footage.
The 40-minute meeting, which took place after many representations, was held at the heavily guarded Foreign Affairs Ministry building, and came after the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) asked Pakistan in May to stay 47-year-old Jadhav's execution.
Jadhav was illegally detained in March 2016 and Monday’s meeting was the first time that Jadhav was allowed to see anyone from India, including his family since his arrest. Pakistan portrayed it as a humanitarian gesture to mark the birthday of the country's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
"Pakistan permits the meeting of wife and mother of Commander Jadhav with him, as a humanitarian gesture, on the birthday of the Father of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah," Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal tweeted on Monday.
The tweet made it a point to identify Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, with his military title. Pakistan claims its security forces arrested Jadhav from its restive Balochistan province after he reportedly entered from Iran. It claims that he was in possession of an Indian passport that identified him as Hussein Mubarak Patel.
(With PTI inputs)
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