Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday termed the restrictions imposed by Pakistan during Kulbhushan Jadhav’s meeting with his wife and mother in Islamabad “inhuman,” saying it had hurt the sentiments of Indians.
Mr. Naidu said that asking Mr. Jadhav’s wife to take off her ‘mangalsutra’ had not gone down well with the people of India. Pakistan “did not do itself any good” by its handling of the meeting while showcasing its gesture to the world, a statement issued by the Vice-President’s Secretariat said.
The meeting between Mr. Jadhav and his mother and wife took place on December 25 at the Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry in Islamabad after repeated requests by India for family access.
Mr. Jadhav, who was arrested in March last year, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged spying, an accusation India has dismissed as concocted. On Tuesday, India accused Pakistan of violating mutual understanding on Mr. Jadhav’s meeting with his family, and said the Indian national appeared coerced and under considerable stress during the tightly-controlled interaction.
Mr. Naidu was interacting with faculty members and students from the universities of Harvard, Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
