World News
Get all the latest news from India's closest neighbors overseas before it gets cold.

‘PoK Will Be Part of India Again’: Defense Minister Rajnath Singh

© AP Photo / Manish SwarupIndian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, center, and Home Minister Amit Shah, right, talk to their cabinet colleagues as they wait to pay respect to the victims of 2001 terror attack on Parliament House, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022.
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, center, and Home Minister Amit Shah, right, talk to their cabinet colleagues as they wait to pay respect to the victims of 2001 terror attack on Parliament House, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. - Sputnik India, 1920, 26.06.2023
Subscribe
Pakistan has administered a part of Jammu and Kashmir region since 1948, soon after Islamabad-backed militants launched a military operation in the region. India has been consistent in maintaining that the entire Jammu and Kashmir region is an “integral part” of the country and urged Islamabad to "vacate" the "illegally-occupied" territory.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has said that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), or Pakistan-administered Kashmir, will be "part of India again", as people of the region were growing increasingly disenchanted with Islamabad.
“We have seen people of PoK protesting against Pakistani authorities. We don’t think we would need to do much. The demand for such a move (re-integrating Pakistan-administered Kashmir with India) would eventually come from the people of PoK,” Singh told a security conference in Jammu on Monday.
Singh said that it was a “matter of concern for us when Pakistani authorities oppress the people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir”.
“A large part of Jammu and Kashmir is in illegal possession of Pakistan. People on the other side of Jammu and Kashmir are seeing how people on this side are living in peace,” he stated.
He said that the Indian Parliament had already passed a unanimous resolution stating that PoK was an “integral part” of India.
Further, Singh hailed the Indian Parliament’s vote in 2019 to annul the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, a move which led to Islamabad downgrading its commercial and diplomatic ties with New Delhi.
The Indian Defense Minister said that Articles 370 and 35A (the constitutional provisions which were revoked in 2019) had been "obstacles" in the path of integrating the people of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian “mainstream”.
He said that these provisions had also been roadblocks for the authorities to act against those who supported cross-border terrorist networks.

'Pakistan Should Stop Focussing on Kashmir Issue’

Singh advised the Pakistani authorities to stop focusing on the Kashmir dispute and rather spend their efforts towards addressing the internal situation, amid Islamabad’s ongoing economic troubles.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint meeting of Congress - Sputnik India, 1920, 23.06.2023
Political Affairs
Modi Urges Islamabad to Ensure Pakistani Territory Not Used for Anti-India Attacks
He noted that the India-US joint statement released after the summit between the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US President Joe Biden at the White House last week reflected that the “world backs India’s stance as far as terrorism is concerned”.
Singh recalled that there was a time when the US used to deploy terrorism as a “political weapon”, but its outlook changed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks after which it started to view terrorism as a “crime against humanity”.

“The joint statement released by India and the US reflects that the the joint statement clearly states that there should be concerted action against listed terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT)*, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)** and Hizbul Mujahideen***. It also asks Pakistan to stop the cross-border terrorism from its soil and brings to justice those responsible for carrying out 26/11 Mumbai attacks and Pathankot terrorist attack,” Singh stated.

Singh remarked that it was only natural that Pakistan has been peeved by the joint statement.
*banned terrorist group
**banned terrorist group
***banned terrorist group
Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала