India rubbishes Pakistan claim on receiving proposal to swap Jadhav for jailed terrorist

New Delhi [India], September 30 (ANI): India has rubbished Pakistan's claim on receiving a proposal to swap Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav for a terrorist, citing that it was another addition to Islamabad's "imaginary lies".

The reaction has come after Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif suggested that he received a proposal to swap Jadhav with a terrorist, lodged in an Afghan jail, during his meeting with an NSA. Asif, however, did not give details about the NSA or the terrorist who was to be swapped.

"If you have gone through the press release [issued by Afghan NSA's office], it seems this is one more addition to the long list of imaginary lies as stories which have been created by the Pakistani establishment," the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Raveesh Kumar, said, in a press briefing, on Friday here.

The MEA spokesperson also referred to Pakistan's use of a "fake picture" at the United Nations General Assembly recently.

Contradicting Asif's claim, the office of the Afghan National Security Advisor, Mohammad Haneef Atmar, had issued a statement saying there was no "mention or reference of India or an Indian citizen during his meeting with the Pakistani foreign minister on September 21 in New York."

The Pakistan Foreign minister, during a conversation at the Asia Society in New York on Tuesday, had said, "The TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) operates from the Afghan soil. The terrorist, who killed the children in the APS (Army Public School) in Peshawar is in Afghan custody. The National Security Advisor (NSA) told me that we can exchange that terrorist with the terrorist you have, which is Kulbhushan Jadhav."

Asif did not give more details.

Asif's comments were being seen as seeking to deflect the criticism of Pakistan by the United States for providing safe havens to terror groups, while trying to imply that Indian intelligence agencies were backing terrorists from the Afghan soil.

Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged involvement in espionage and subversive activities. His execution was stayed after India moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ). (ANI)