Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said he was hopeful that India will take back PoK without doing anything aggressive, as the people themselves are demanding freedom from the existing administration in the region.
"PoK will be ours on its own. Demands have started being made in PoK, you must have heard sloganeering,," Singh stated while engaging with the Indian community in Morocco.
The minister remembered saying the same thing five years ago at an Indian Army event in Jammu and Kashmir.
"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," the Defence Minister said.
The comments of Singh follow after accusations that the Central government had let go of an opportunity to seize PoK during Operation Sindoor on May 7. The opposition leaders had rebuked the government for undertaking a ceasefire when India was at an advantage following Operation Sindoor, which shot down several Pakistani aircraft, arguing that it was a chance to take back the Pakistan-occupied land.
The Defence Minister is also on a two-day tour to Morocco, where he is set to open Tata Advanced Systems' new manufacturing unit for the Wheeled Armoured Platform (WhAP) 8x8 at Berrechid. This is the first ever Indian defence manufacturing unit on African soil.
This is the first visit by an Indian Defence Minister to Morocco. Singh hailed the new facility as an important milestone, projecting the increasing global presence of India's defence industry.
During his visit, Singh will have a bilateral meeting with his Moroccan counterpart, Abdeltif Loudiyi. India and Morocco will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in the area of Defence. The agreement will create an institutional mechanism to enhance bilateral defence cooperation, such as exchanges, training, and industrial cooperation. Indian warships have been making periodic port visits to Casablanca in recent years, and the MoU is likely to further strengthen these relations.
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