Pakistan's 'glaring admission' of having militants on its soil: India

Islamabad : Ministry of External Affairs (India) pointed out how Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan made a 'glaring admission' of having 30,000-40,000 militants residing on its soil, advising Islamabad that it is time when they must take a 'credible and irreversible action' against the militant groups.

“It is a glaring admission by the Pakistani leadership,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a media briefing.

The reaction from India came after Imran Khan admitted to 30,000-40,000 “armed people”, who have been trained and fought in some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir, were in Pakistan and accused the previous governments of not telling the truth to the US about the militant groups operating in the country.

"Until we came into power, the governments did not have the political will, because when you talk about militant groups, we still have about 30,000-40,000 armed people who have been trained and fought in some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir," Khan had said during his appearance at the US Institute of Peace, a US- Congress funded think-tank, on Tuesday.

From a long time, India and Afghanistan have been accusing Pakistan of providing safe havens to the terrorists.

Kumar also said that Indian authorities are in touch with their Pakistani counterparts to provide consular access to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav whose death sentence by a Pakistan military court was suspended by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week.

"We expect that full consular access should be granted to Kulbhushan Jadhav at the earliest in full compliance with the ICJ’s judgment. We are in touch with Pakistani authorities in this regard and as and when there is an update, we will let you know," he said.