By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistani authorities took the shoes Indian spy Kulbushan Jadhav’s wife was wearing on her arrival in Pakistan, giving an alternate pair before she was sent to meet her husband , according to the Foreign Office spokesperson on Tuesday.
According to the Pakistani foreign office, Chetankul Jadhav’s shoes were taken over suspicion after authorities felt there was something fixed in them.
Chetankul’s shoes were kept for investigation, while everything else, including her jewellery was returned, the Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said in a statement.
As the pair of shoes is in the custody of the Pakistani authorities, it was being ascertained whether the metallic objected suspected to be fixed in them is a camera of a recording chip, stated the spokesperson.
Jadhav’s wife Chentankul and mother Avanti reached Pakistan Monday to meet him at the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.
It was said that Chetankul and Avanti were asked to wash their faces, to clean it if they were wearing any makeup. They were also asked to remove whatever jewellery they were wearing.
The roads leading from and to the Foreign Office building were closed to traffic for the meeting. Walkthrough gates were installed outside the Foreign Office building amid strict security measures.
Commander Jadhav — an on-duty Indian navy officer working for Indian covert agency Research and Analysis Wing — was arrested on March 3, 2016, from Balochistan, after he entered into Pakistan from Iran. He has been convicted of espionage and sabotage activities.
On the other hand , Indian authorities while taking provision of alternate shoes to the spy’s wife as mistreatment, accused that the mother and wife of the convict were harassed and prevented from talking to the prisoner freely, according to media reports.
Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, a former officer in the Indian navy, was arrested in March 2016 in the South Western Pakistan province of Balochistan, and he was convicted of planning espionage and sabotage after he confessed his crime.
His wife and mother were allowed to meet him behind a glass window on Monday, eight months after he was sentenced to death, but instead of appreciating Pakistan’s goodwill gesture, India has criticized Pakistan for what it called mistreatment of the family .
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said Jadhav’s family had been subjected to harassment when they arrived to meet him, referring to the provision of alternate shoes to Jadhev’s wife. He also criticized Pakistani media for putting questions to mother and wife of the Indian spy.
