New Delhi: Days after the International Court of Justice gave its ruling on Kulbhushan Jadhav, social media reports have claimed Pakistan has arrested two more Indian “spies” in the last one month.
One of the men named in the reports is Lt Diwakar Puri, while the other is one Raju Laxman, who the Pakistan Police allegedly caught in Dera Ghazi Khan district of eastern Punjab province.
Pakistan’s claims, however, appear to be far from the truth.
The case of Lt Puri
Lt Puri was an Army Medical Corps officer who was recently found dead on the tracks at the Old Delhi railway station. However, former Pakistani military official Zaid Hamid has claimed he is now in Pakistan’s custody.
In reality, this Lt Diwakarpuri was sent on a covert mission to Pakistan…
Now captured…
We got another "Kalbhoshan" in our custody now…..
See the link of disinformation, spying, covert operations and war… pic.twitter.com/G7c69XpscA
— Zaid Hamid (@ZaidZamanHamid) August 4, 2019
Hamid, whose Twitter bio says he is a Soviet-Afghan war veteran and founding consultant of a think-tank called BrassTacks, claimed in a recent tweet that Puri did not die, but that it was a cover to was send him on a covert mission to Pakistan. He further posted the picture of a person, terming him as Lt Puri and calling the catch an intelligence operation carried out using “mass deception and disinformation”.
The case of Raju Laxman
Some media reports in Pakistan claimed last week that the police arrested another Indian Raju Laxman, who was allegedly spying on a nuclear enrichment facility in Rakhi Gaj, Dera Ghazi Khan district, Pakistani Punjab.
The proof produced by the police for its claims was that the accused was wearing inner-wear of Indian brand Lux Cozi.
An Indian National namely Raju Laxman has been Apprehended by security forces in DG Khan as he crossed from Balochistan into Punjab, he has been shifted to an unknown location on suspicion of him being a possible spy, as per reports. #Pakistan #India
— Anas Mallick (@AnasMallick) July 31, 2019
However, a Bheel tribal family in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district has claimed that the accused is no spy, but their mentally-challenged son, a 30-year-old class V dropout, who had been missing for two weeks.
Rejecting Pakistan’s claims on Laxman, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said last week that Pakistan is yet to communicate with India on this matter. Official sources in the MEA said such claims on Twitter are not credible.
Pakistan had earlier arrested retired Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, alleging that he was spying for India.
The ICJ ordered an “effective review and reconsideration” of the conviction and death sentence handed to Jadhav, and directed Pakistan to give consular access to him.
Also read: International Court of Justice suspends Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death penalty