ISLAMABAD – Retired Lieutenant General Amjad Shoaib has rejected Indian media claims that he has admitted that the Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav was captured in Iran.
In an exclusive talk with Daily Pakistan, the retired general vehemently rejected the claims of story published in India Today titled ‘Big blow for Pakistan: Ex-ISI official admits Kulbhushan Jadhav was captured from Iran‘, that claimed that the former ISI official (Amjad Shoaib is not an ex-ISI officer) admitted that Jadhav was arrested from Iran, an argument that India maintains in the International Court of Justice in its defence.
He said the Indian publication did not approach him before publishing the story and based its claims on the doctored clip, adding they took his statements out of the reference and context. He said that in the show which the clip is taken from, he actually meant that Jadhav was headquartered in Iran, which Jadhav has confessed himself.
There is a clip circulating in Indian media where his quote is clipped and is taken out of context.
Giving credence to his stance, the general maintained that had the spy been arrested from inside of Iran, there would have been a protest from the Iranian government and a diplomatic pressure on Pakistan for carrying out the operation in a sovereign country’s territory – which did not happen. “Indian media, by taking my clip out of context is trying to frame it in such a way that makes me look like saying that we captured him from inside of Iran when I meant that he came from Iran and we captured him.”
“They have done it to me in the past too,” He said. “In a TV show, I once had said ‘Only China will benefit from CPEC if Pakistan does not do its homework’. However, Indian media ran the story that a retired Pakistani General is saying that ‘Only China will benefit from CPEC’ changing the whole meaning of my statement,” he added.
On the other hand, some in Pakistan were quick to jump on Gen Shoaib’s statement as if what he has said was the conclusive proof that Jadhav was arrested from India.
https://twitter.com/gulbukhari/status/867306152689905669
It may be noted here that General Shoaib has not served Pakistan Army in a long time and was long retired when Kulbhushan was arrested in Balochistan. He does not have any security clearance to have such classified information.
In the International Court of Justice, Pakistan has said that its security forces arrested Jadhav from Balochistan on March 3 last year after he entered from Iran.
The full show where the statement is taken from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XijHPWr3G5A
A previous version of this story stated that Lt Gen(r) Amjad Shoaib is an ex-ISI officer, however Shoaib has never been a part of ISI. Mistake is regretted.
