Pak foreign ministry ‘thanks’ journos for heckling Jadhav’s wife and mother?

NEW DELHI. The humiliating treatment meted out to Kulbhushan Jadhav’s family members by Pakistan and some of its media on the day they met the former naval officer seems to have pleased the country’s foreign ministry, according to some scribes there.Hassan Belal Zaidi, a senior journalist with Dawn newspaper, tweeted that Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry (MOFA) office had planned the shameful heckling in advance and later even thanked the journalists for a “job well done”.A video doing the rounds on the Internet shows how Jadhav's wife and mother were first hounded by the Pakistani media outside the MOFA building and then at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad. “Aap ek dashtgard ki maa hain, kya kehna chahti hain iss baare mein? (You are the mother of a terrorist, how does it feel?)”, was one of many accusatory questions.“Aap ka beta sainkdo Pakistaniyon ka qatil hai, aap jawab den, aap bhag kyun rahe hain? (Your son has butchered hundreds of Pakistanis, we need answers, why are you running away?)”, was another.Some journalists in Pakistan too slammed the conduct of their press colleagues.Taha Siddiqui, Pakistan bureau chief of WION News, said he was disgusted by what his fellow journalists did.Another eminent scribe from Pakistan, Benzair Shah, found herself at a loss for words to describe the scene.Jadhav being allowed to meet his wife and mother was tom-tommed as a “humanitarian gesture” by Pakistan, which essentially humiliated and intimidated the women, according to India’s ministry of external affairs.Not only were the two forced to speak with a glass barrier separating them from Jadhav, they were also forbidden to speak in Marathi. In addition, Pakistani officials displayed zero cultural sensitivity and made Jadhav’s wife and mother change clothes and remove their mangalsutra, bangles and bindi. Jadhav’s wife’s footwear was not returned to her either.