On Pakistan Day, India gives a clear message – 'Will reunite PoK, Gilgit-Baltistan with Jammu and Kashmir`

New Delhi: Minister of State (MoS) in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh on Thursday reiterated that the government would free Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan from the illegal occupation of Pakistan.

The Union minister added that the government’s objective was to restore Jammu and Kashmir in its original format, that includes Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK.

Notably, today is Pakistan's Republic Day. Pakistan Day, or Republic Day, commemorates March 23, 1940, when a resolution was passed in Lahore, to demand a separate homeland for the Muslims.

Earlier this month, a committee headed by Pakistan's foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz had proposed to make Gilgit-Baltistan, the region north of the Line of Control in the Pakistan-administered Kashmir, fifth province.

India had then cleared that any efforts to change the status of Gilgit-Baltistan region will not be acceptable.

 

Reiterating India's stand on the Jammu and Kashmir, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay had on March 16 said: "The position of the government on Jammu and Kashmir is consistent and well known. The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India in 1947."

"It has been, is and will always be an integral part of India. A part of Jammu and Kashmir has been under illegal occupation of Pakistan."