Jammu, Jan 14 : Jammu and Kashmir is incomplete without PoK and it is nothing more than a foreign territory for Pakistan, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Jammu on Tuesday.
“PoK is being used to operate terrorism. Training camps for terrorists are still operating from PoK and launch pads have been built in the areas adjacent to the border. The Indian government knows everything. Pakistan will have to end them,” Rajnath Singh said while addressing veterans during the celebration of the 9th Armed Forces Veterans’ Day programme at Tanda Artillery Brigade in Akhnoor.
The Defence Minister said that the people living in PoK are being deprived of a dignified life.
“Efforts are being made by the rulers of Pakistan to mislead and incite them against India in the name of religion. The venom that the illegal Prime Minister of PoK has recently spewed against India is a part of Pakistan’s conspiracy. What PoK’s Prime Minister Anwarul Haq is saying today is the same anti-India agenda that the rulers of Pakistan have been running since the time of General Zia-ul-Haq,” he said.
“PoK is the jewel in the crown of India. In any case, PoK is nothing more than a foreign territory for Pakistan,” he added.
He hoisted a 108-foot national flag and inaugurated a heritage museum in the Akhnoor.
“This year we are celebrating Veterans Day in Akhnoor. This is definitely a big moment for us. The biggest priority of our government has been to bridge the distance between Kashmir and the rest of the country,” said Singh.
“We have started to end terrorism by ending Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Today the situation in J&K has changed to a great extent. J&K is incomplete without PoK,” he added.
The Defence Minister said that in the 1965 war, Indian forces succeeded in hoisting the tricolour on Haji Pir but it was left on the negotiating table. “If this had not happened, the infiltration routes of terrorists would have been closed at that time itself,” he added.
“Despite this, Pakistan has not given up terrorism to date. Even today, more than eighty per cent of terrorists come to India from Pakistan. The terrorism going on across the border would have ended in 1965 itself if the then government had not turned the many strategic advantages gained on the battlefield into strategic disadvantages on the negotiating table,” he said. (ANI)
