NEW DELHI, June 26: The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday asked Pakistan to focus on problems back home and warned the country that it would not take much of efforts on the part of India to take back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
He was referring to Pakistan’s reaction to the joint US-India statement during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States. The statement read: “They (Biden and Modi) strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks.” In response, Pakistan’s foreign ministry had said India was using allegations of extremism against Islamabad to deflect from the situation in Kashmir and the treatment of minorities in India.
“I want to clearly tell Pakistan that it will not get anything by repeatedly raising the bogey of Kashmir,” Singh said while addressing a security conference organised by the Jammu and Kashmir BJP in Jammu University. “We do not need to work much to take back PoK as the demand for uniting with India will start from there only,” he warned adding that occupying areas of J&K illegally does not give Pakistan any locus standi.
“Aap apna ghar sambhaliye. Jis tarah ke halaat hain wahan, usmey kuch bhi jaaye toh aashchary nahi hona chahiye (You take care of your home. The kind of situation that exists there, it won’t be surprising if they lose something),” he said.
Pointing out that a sizeable area of J&K is under Pakistan’s occupation, he said those living there can see that people are living in peace on the Indian side. “We feel pained when the Pakistan government commits atrocities on them,” he said.
Singh said there was a time when the US, the world’s most powerful nation, used to “see terrorism a political weapon” but the 9/11 terror attack changed their viewpoint, and today the country acknowledges that terrorism was a crime against mankind. “We have initiated measures to stop terror funding, supply of weapons and drugs,” he said, adding that apart from eliminating terrorists, action is also being initiated against their network of underground workers. “Through strict action, the entire network of terrorism, which had been functional in Jammu and Kashmir since decades, has been weakened to a great extent.”
He said that Articles 370 and 35A had kept the common people of J&K segregated from the national mainstream for long, and served as hurdles in initiating action against anti-national forces.
Stating that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has been withdrawn from a large part of Northeast India, he said, “I am waiting for the day when permanent peace comes to Jammu and Kashmir and an opportunity comes to withdraw AFSPA here also.”
In the Northeast, he said, a large number of insurgents have either been killed or have joined the mainstream. “While we have been able to tackle insurgency in the Northeast, we have also been able to control Naxal terrorism,” he said.
On the standoff on frontiers in Eastern Ladakh, he said: “We want peaceful settlement of border dispute through talks between India and China. The talks at military and diplomatic level are in progress and I want to assure all of you that we will not compromise with India’s frontiers, dignity and integrity.”
(Manas Dasgupta)