PoK to Gilgit-Baltistan integral part of India, illegally occupied by Pakistan: Rajnath Singh

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday, November 2 categorically stated that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan are an integral part of India and are under the illegal occupation of Pakistan.

He took to the social networking site Twitter and said, "Gilgit-Baltistan is under illegal occupation by Pakistan and is now going to make it a state on which our government has said in two words that from PoK to Gilgit-Baltistan is an integral part of India."  

He also tweeted, "We did not want India to be divided but it was done. You are also aware of the Hindu-Sikh-Buddhist who remained in Pakistan and how they have been dealing with them. We enacted a citizenship law for minorities facing religious persecution there," 

He took a dig at the Congress on raising fingers at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and questioned their silence after Pakistan admitted to the attack. He tweeted, "The Pulwama attack was said to be lewd by the Congress. Prime Minister Modiji was suspected. Three days ago in the Assembly of Pakistan, the Pakistan minister himself revealed what had happened in Pulwama. Why are the Congress silent now?"

In an election rally on October 31, Rajnath Singh had said that the acceptance by the Pakistani minister of the Pulwama terror attack has silenced all critics and opposition parties, particularly the Congress. 

"A Pakistani minister has revealed the truth in the Pulwama attack by giving a statement in the National Assembly. Pakistan has accepted that they were behind the Pulwama attack. Until now, they had been saying they were not involved in it," he had said. 

"Congress leaders had questioned our intent then. But now that a Pakistani minister has given a statement in the National Assembly that Pakistan was involved in the Pulwama attack, they are silent," he had added.

On February 14, 2019, a jeep laden with explosives had hit a convoy of vehicles carrying CRPF jawans on the Jammu- Srinagar highway at Lethpora in Pulwama. The attack had claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.