PoK belongs to India, day of reunification near: Rajnath Singh

In a strongly-worded message to Islamabad, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh stated that India will take back the control of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) as the demands for the same are being raised by the people from the region.

The defence minister was speaking with the Indian diaspora in Rabat, Morocco, on Monday. “PoK will be ours on its own. Demands have started being made in PoK, you must have heard sloganeering,” he said.

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Speaking about his statement from five years ago, the defence minister said, “I was addressing the Indian Army at a program in Kashmir Valley five years ago, I had then said that we will not need to attack and capture PoK, it is anyway ours; PoK itself will say, ‘Main bhi Bharat Hoon’. That day will come.”

Stating that Operation Sindoor was still ongoing, the defence minister said it was undertaken by the country’s armed forces to execute the terrorists and terror hubs behind the brutal killings in Pahalgam. “India does not discriminate against people from different communities, and it acted to teach a lesson to those who spread terror. While the terrorists killed people in Pahalgam after asking their religion, we did not see someone’s religion, but their actions,” he added.

“We killed only those who killed our people. We didn’t attack any civilian or any military establishment. Only India can have this character. Had we wanted, we could have attacked any military establishment or civilian establishment, but we didn’t do it. We should uphold this character of India,” he went on to add.

In a candid exchange with members of the diaspora, Rajnath Singh highlighted the multidimensional progress achieved by India in the last decade.

Despite global and geopolitical challenges, he stated that India has emerged as the fastest-growing major economy, rising from the 11th to the 4th largest in the world, and is poised to enter the top three soon. Singh also highlighted India’s digital transformation, rapid strides in the knowledge economy, and the surge in startups from 18 unicorns a decade ago to 118 today. He underlined the remarkable growth of India’s defence industry, which has achieved production worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore and defence exports exceeding Rs 23,000 crore to more than 100 countries.

Singh is on a two-day official visit to Morocco, the first ever by an Indian defence minister to the North African nation. The visit, is at the invitation of Minister Delegate of National Defence of Morocco Abdeltif Loudiyi, and will underscore the growing strategic convergence between India and Morocco.

Singh will also inaugurate Tata Advanced Systems Maroc’s new manufacturing facility for the Wheeled Armoured Platform (WhAP) 8×8 at Berrechid. This facility is the first-ever Indian defence manufacturing plant in Africa.