EAM Jaishankar amid ongoing protests in Muzaffarabad

Amid intense protests against the Pakistan government in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday reiterated India’s stand on the accession of the illegally occupied territory and said that “one day we will merge PoK and the illegal annexation of PoK.” Will end the occupation.” Will join with India.”

He said, “A lot of things are going on in PoK these days. You must have seen some incidents happening there. Now, Modi government, we are very clear on this. As per the Parliament resolution, we are absolutely clear that PoK is a part of India. It is part of India, it was always part of India, it will remain part of India,” the External Affairs Minister said while speaking to the media at a seminar on the Indian Capital Market ‘Roadmap for a Developed India’ at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Mumbai. Said during. ,

“And that is certainly our intention. That one day we will end the illegal occupation of PoK and PoK will join India. Now you see that the opposition is in the opposite direction.”

Referring to the criticism after the BJP-led government in August 2019 abrogated Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the minister also questioned “who wanted Article 370 to go away, who had interest in it”. .

He said, “If I talk about the record, one of our biggest achievements in the last five years was Article 370. And we will also say that the record of NDA and the thinking of NDA, the thinking of Modi government is how to integrate Kashmir, how to further develop the country, Kashmir. On the other hand, you see who wanted to introduce Article 370, who was interested in it. So this is also a very clear choice before the country,” he said.

The External Affairs Minister also commented on former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah’s remarks that “they (Pakistan) are also not wearing bangles” and will attack us, adding that the leader would be ready to use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. So afraid that they believe India should not talk about PoJK. Pakistan.

“Farooq Abdullah reminds us not to talk about PoK because Pakistan has nuclear weapons. We are proud of India’s nuclear weapons. In contrast, Pakistan’s nuclear weapons appear to be more important. Be it Manish Shankar Iyer or Farooq Abdullah, they are so afraid of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons that they think that we should not talk about PoK. So I would say that whatever the security issue, we are in favor of CAA, our intention is to take CAA forward. They are prisoners of the vote bank,” he said.

“And right from the beginning, the minorities who had to come to India from their neighboring country were never concerned about them. He never thought about the injustice done to him.”

The situation remained tense in PoJK on Monday as a complete strike against high prices of wheat flour and increased electricity bills and taxes entered its fourth day, with the Pakistan government taking steps to ease the situation after deadly clashes between security forces and protesters. Efforts have been intensified. ,

As the wheel-jam strike continued in PoJK for the fourth consecutive day, a long march led by the Awami Action Committee (AAC) was taken out to PoJK capital Muzaffarabad, Geo News reported.

The protesters have already begun a sit-in, effectively blocking the Kohala-Muzaffarabad road at various points along its 40-km stretch, which connects Kohala town with Muzaffarabad in PoJK. Their route from Dhirkot is expected to take them to the capital.

The PoJK government deployed rangers and police following clashes between law enforcement and protesters in Mirpur. One police officer was killed and 70 others were injured in these clashes.

Heavy police contingents have been deployed at key points and sensitive areas, while markets, business centers and educational institutions are closed and transport services are suspended.

Meanwhile, according to Geo News, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called a high-level meeting to address the ongoing situation in PoJK as talks between protesters and the state government have reached a deadlock.