Did the Pakistan foreign affairs ministry “thank” the media for humiliating the wife and mother of jailed former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav?
Even as the Indian government slammed Pakistan for mistreating Jadhav’s mother and wife when they had gone to meet him in Islamabad, a senior journalist with Dawn newspaper
Hassan Belal Zaidi has alleged that Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry office had planned the heckling in advance and later even thanked the journalists for a “job well done”.
“Reporters shouted taunts and slogans at the two women, said they were related to a killer who has blood on his hands. FO even messaged reporters to thank them for 'job well done'.
Conduct unbecoming of journalists was on display that day...” Zaidi tweeted.
A video doing the rounds on the Internet shows how Jadhav’s wife and mother were hounded by the Pakistani media outside the Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry building. However, many Pakistani journalists condemned the conduct of their colleagues, according to The Times of India.
Aap ek dashtgard ki maa hain, kya kehna chahti hain iss baare mein? (You are the mother of a terrorist, how does it feel?)", one of the voices could be heard in the video.
"Aap ka beta sainkdo Pakistaniyon ka qatil hai, aap jawab den, aap bhag kyon rahe hain? (Your son has killed hundreds of Pakistanis, we need answers, why are you running away?)", was another.
Taha Siddiqui, Pakistan bureau chief of WION News, slammed the conduct of his media colleagues and expressed disgust.
“Somedays we do a story tht disgusts us. Today was one such day. But it wasnt cuz of what I covered. Rather it was cuz of how my fellow journos behaved with mother & wife of #KulbushanJadhav whn they left FO building. They shouted taunts. It was very shameful,” Siddiqui tweeted.
Another eminent scribe from Pakistan, Benazir Shah, said she had no words for journalist “who think heckling and harassing a 70-year-old woman is the best way to express patriotism”.
Meanwhile, India on Thursday slammed Pakistan for making "absurd" charges of a chip, camera or a recorder being installed in the footwear of the wife of Jadhav and said Islambad has frittered away an opportunity to move forward in ties by turning his meeting with his family as a propaganda tool.
In identical statements in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said India has conveyed its objections to Pakistan in a note verbale on Wednesday over the way it had conducted Jadhav's meeting with his mother and wife in Islamabad earlier this week.
"This meeting could have been a step towards moving forward. But, it is a matter of great disappointment, that the meeting took place flouting all the understandings both countries had agreed to," she said.
(With PTI inputs)
