India on Thursday asserted that there has been no communication from Pakistan on the Kulbhushan Jadhav case when asked if Pakistan has reached out to India after Islamabad Court's order that India should be given another chance to appoint a lawyer to defend Jadhav.
Addressing a press conference, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava stated that Indian officials need unhindered and unimpeded consular access to Jadhav.
"Pakistan needs to address basic issues which pertain to effective review, fulfilment and implementation of ICJ judgement. These issues pertain to making relevant documentation available to us and providing unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Jadhav," said Srivastava.
Reacting to a query on China's presence in Pangong Lake, Srivastava said, "We also expect that the Chinese side will work with us sincerely for complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas."
He also said, "As I have conveyed earlier the Special Representatives of India and China had a telephone conversation on July 5 where they discussed the situation in the India-China border areas. The two Special Representatives had agreed that early and complete disengagement of the troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and de-escalation from India-China border areas in accordance with bilateral agreement and protocols and full restoration of peace and tranquillity was essential for the smooth overall development of bilateral relations. India remains committed to this objective."
The MEA spokesperson asked Turkey to refrain from commenting on India's internal affairs after it said that the abrogation of Article 370 doesn't contribute to peace in Jammu and Kashmir. "Turkey's statement on Jammu and Kashmir is factually incorrect, biased and unwarranted. Would urge the government of Turkey to get a proper understanding of the ground situation and refrain from interfering in matters internal to India," said Srivastava.
Speaking on the new political map of Pakistan which shows India's territories as its own, the MEA spokesperson said, "This type of absurd claims shows that Pakistan wants to take control of more areas by using cross border terrorism."
Nearly 9.5 lakh Indians stranded abroad have returned under Vande Bharat Mission so far, announced the MEA. Srivastava said Vande Bharat Mission has become the largest sustained operation of repatriation of stranded Indians.
"We are nearing 1 million-mark in Vande Bharat Mission making it the largest sustained operation of repatriation of stranded Indians. As on date nearly 9.5 lakh Indians has returned home under this mission," Srivastava said.
India is in phase five of the mission which was operationalised from August 1, Srivastava said. "Based on the assessment of demand received from our mission. Scheduled has been augmented with the 60 more flights. This takes the total number of flights scheduled this month to 746," the spokesperson added.
Vande Bharat Mission started in early May to evacuate Indians stranded abroad due to coronavirus restrictions.
