India slams Pakistan over Kulbhushan Jadhav's new video, calls it 'absurd and propagandist'

Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of 'espionage' and 'terrorism' in April 2017.

New Delhi: Reacting to another suspect video released by Pakistan of Indian death row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav, India slammed Islamabad said on Wednesday saying that 'propagandistic exercises simply 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," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

It added, "Absurdity of a captive under duress certifying his own welfare while mouthing allegations of his captors clearly merits no comment."

"Pakistan best advised to fulfill 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," MEA further said.

Our response to the latest video by Pakistan of Shri Kulbushan Jhadav pic.twitter.com/LXKJZJh18s

— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) January 4, 2018

Pakistan on Thursday released a video of 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 had yelled at his mother.

However, the veracity of the video which was released by the Pakistan Foreign Office could not be ascertained.

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."

But it was not clear how he 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.

The video has been released days after India 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, 2017, 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 an intercom and the entire 40-minute proceedings appeared to have been recorded on video.

After Jadhav had met his wife and mother, the Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry had released a suspicious video of him at that too.

"I requested a meeting with my wife and mother and I am thankful to the government of Pakistan for this gesture," Jadhav was heard saying in the brief video message.

He was 'captured' in March March 2016 and was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged 'spying', an accusation that India has dismissed as concocted. 

(With PTI inputs)