Kulbhusan wife, mother to arrive on Dec 25

Monitoring Desk

ISLAMABAD: India has informed Islamabad that the mother and wife of convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav will arrive in Pakistan on December 25 to hold a scheduled meeting with the spy.

The two women will arrive in the country through a commercial flight and will leave Pakistan the same day after the meeting, the Foreign Office said on Saturday.

Indian deputy high commissioner in Islamabad will accompany the duo during the meeting.

New Delhi conveyed this information to Islamabad after, according to diplomatic sources DawnNews spoke to, Pakistan gave India the deadline of tonight to provide the requisite information about the spy’s family members’ visit or risk the meeting being deferred or cancelled.

The sources had earlier said that Pakistan has completed the preparations to arrange the meeting between Jadhav and his family next week, but India was delaying providing relevant information about his mother and wife’s visit to Islamabad.

The Indian High Commission was informed about the issuance of the deadline, the sources had said.

Until this moment, India had not communicated to Pakistan when and through which flight the two women would reach Islamabad, the sources had said. It was also not made clear whether Jadhav’s two children would also travel to Pakistan.

The Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi had issued visas to Jadhav’s mother and wife earlier in the week.

The visas were issued after Pakistan decided to allow Jadhav’s mother to visit him, in addition to his wife. The two women are scheduled to travel to Pakistan to meet the Indian spy on December 25 and will be accompanied by an Indian diplomat.

Pakistan had initially offered a meeting between Jadhav and his wife on “humanitarian grounds”. However, India made the acceptance of the offer conditional to permission for his mother and an Indian diplomat to accompany her. After extensive deliberations, the Indian request was allowed and last week Dec 25 was proposed as the meeting date.