PoK is, was and will remain a part of India: Rajnath Singh in Jammu

Jammu: Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) is, was and will remain a part of India and the Pakistan government will achieve nothing by repeatedly claiming PoK, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Jammu on Monday.

He emphasized that illegal occupation of the PoK does not make locus standi of Pakistan.

"A unanimous resolution has been passed in the Parliament of India regarding PoK that it is a part of India only. Not one but at least three proposals of this intention have now been passed in the Parliament," Singh said.

Defence Minister was addressing a "security conclave" organized at Jammu University on internal and external dimensions of the country's defence mechanism, with a particular focus on J-K.

"A large part of Jammu and Kashmir is under the occupation of Pakistan. People on other side are seeing that people are living their lives peacefully in J-K. People living in POK going through a lot of suffering and they will raise demand to go with India," Singh said.

Speaking on the abrogation of Article 370 in J-K, he said that BJP abrogated the article and did justice to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who were been unfairly treated for decades.

"Because of Article 370 and 35A, the common people of Jammu and Kashmir were kept away from the mainstream of the country for a long time, it was a hindrance in taking action against any anti-national force," he said.

He further said that the general public is happy with the decision of abrogation of Article 370. "The trouble is only for those whose shop of hatred and separatism is getting closed," Singh said.

"We have managed to stop the funding of terrorism, stopped the supply of weapons and drugs and along with the elimination of terrorists, the work of dismantling the network of underground workers working here is also going on," he added.

He further said that the Joint Statement issued by Prime Minister Modi with US President Joe Biden has made it clear that India has changed the mindset of the whole world including America on the issue of terrorism.

"The countries that use terrorism as a state policy have to understand very well that this game is not going to last long, today most of the big countries of the world are united against terrorism," he said.

The minister also said that despite "perception differences" with China, there are some agreements and protocols following which the armies of both countries patrol at borders. "Our other neighbour country is China. Even with China, many times there are differences on some issues. It is true that there is a perception difference regarding the border with China for a long time. Despite this, there are some agreements and protocols following which the armies of both countries patrol at borders. These agreements were made in the time of Narasimhrao ji, Atalji and in the time of Dr Manmohan Singh ji on the basis of the consent of both the countries," he said.

He also said that the dispute in East Ladakh in 2020 arose because Chinese forces ignored the "agreed protocols".

"The reason for the dispute that arose in East Ladakh in the year 2020 was that the Chinese forces ignored the Agreed Protocols. Chinese Army PLA tried to make some changes on LAC in a unilateral manner which was thwarted by Indian troops," he added.

Singh further said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government started effective action against terrorism and for the first time not only the country but the world came to know what is the meaning of Zero Tolerance against Terrorism.

"AFSPA has been removed from large parts of North East as we have successfully controlled the problem of insurgency in North East India. I am waiting for the day when there will be Permanent Peace in J-K and there will be a chance to remove AFSPA from here too," he said.