Was Jadhav’s meeting a mere mockery of human rights?

NEW DELHI: The recent meet of Kulbhushan Jadhav with his wife and mother has called for some controversial debate by security experts. Pakistani officials made sure that the visit remained humiliating enough for both the women. There were many cases of infringement been brought to the notice of the Indian delegation that accompanied Kulbhushan's kin. Kulbhushan's wife Chetankul and mother Avanti, met foreign minister Sushma Swaraj after their meeting in Islamabad on late Monday.

The death sentence was granted to Kulbhushan Jadhav by the Pakistan army court and in no time, India approached the International Court of Justice to intervene in this case and got stay on his execution. After twenty agonizing months of his captivity, Kulbhushan was allowed to meet his family members under very scrutiny. It was only after Kulbhushan mother's plea that Pakistan had let his family members meet, that too after diplomatic pressure been put up by the Indian government.

The meeting took place in the highly guarded building of Pakistan's external ministry and was done under heavy surveillance of the security agencies. Later Indian government condemned the way meeting was conducted by Pakistani authority as it violated the spirit of understanding between the two countries. As per the prior negotiations, media wasn't the part of this meeting but later the involvement of media led to the harassment of two women, as they were hurled by unnecessary questions by the media people. Media directed many questions at them and were made to hear some derogatory remarks against Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Then to add more agony, Kulbhushan's wife and mother were forced to get away with the Hindu symbols such as bindi, mangalsutra, bangles and not only this, even to get rid of their clothes.

Kulbhushan's mother, who belonged to a Marathi family, was restrained from speaking her own language, by the Pakistan officials who were recording the whole conversation.

JP Singh, the deputy high commissioner was initially set apart from the family members and the family was taken to the meeting without informing Singh. But after a strong protest by Singh, he informed the Pakistan officials regarding the violation of the mutual understanding that he was allowed inside.

However, none of them paid heed to Singh, and he was kept behind an additional partition. Even after strong demur, they did not allow him any access to the meeting, as discussed before.

Also, before letting her wife enter the meeting room, her shoes were taken away by the Pakistani officials and wasn't even returned after the culmination of meeting and made his wife go back barefooted. After going through such an ordeal, the women narrated their traumatic and abusive story to Sushma Swaraj.