Region from PoK to Gilgit-Baltistan integral part of India, currently it's under Pakistan's illegal occupation: Rajnath Singh

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday stated that the region from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to Gilgit-Baltistan is an integral part of India, adding that currently, it's under the illegal occupation of Pakistan.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, "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."

"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 also tweeted.

Taking a jibe at the Congress over the 2019 Pulwama terror attack, Singh stated that earlier the party had pointed a finger at PM Narendra Modi but after Pakistan revealed their involvement they have gone silent. "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?" he further tweeted. 

On October 31, Friday had said that a Pakistani minister's admission of his country's involvement in the Pulwama attack has revealed the truth on the matter and silenced those who had questioned the NDA governments intent on the issue. His statement came at an election rally a day after senior Pakistani minister Fawad Chaudhry sensationally admitted that his country was responsible for the Pulwama terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 40 CRPF personnel.

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"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. Forty Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed on February 14, 2019, when a jeep laden with explosives had hit a convoy of vehicles carrying security personnel on the Jammu- Srinagar highway at Lethpora in Pulwama.

Singh had added, "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 said. He said Opposition leaders were indirectly empowering Pakistan.