Pakistan Occupied Kashmir Is A Part Of India, Will Get Control Over It: VK Singh

Pakistan Occupied Kashmir is a part of India and New Delhi will get control over it, Union Minister and former Chief Of Army Staff VK Singh said on Wednesday.

"What is the need to capture it (PoK). PoK is ours. We will get hold on it," the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways said on the sidelines of an event by industry body Assocham.

Singh's remark came a week after Union Minister Jitendra Singh said the day is not far off when it will be possible to unfurl the tricolour in PoK.

On Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat's recent remarks that PoK is a "terrorist-controlled" part of Pakistan, Singh said the same has been said in Parliament too.

Rawat had on Friday described PoK as a "terrorist-controlled" part of the neighbouring country and sought to link it with Islamabad's criticism of India's decision to scrap the Article 370 of the Constitution of India that accorded administrative autonomy to Jammu & Kashmir.

On Tuesday, the opposition parties criticised the central government for allowing a private delegation from the European Parliament to visit Kashmir. Commenting on this, Singh said, “Apart from opposing, the opposition doesn't do anything. They can speak on anything. Let them pass remarks."

The Congress had on Tuesday stepped up its attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party government for allowing Members of the European Parliament to visit Kashmir while denying permission to Indian parliamentarians, terming it a "national embarrassment".

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said BJP's nationalism is strange, as it allows MEPs to visit and interfere in Kashmir while Indian MPs are sent back from the Srinagar airport.

The MEPs visiting Jammu & Kashmir on Wednesday termed Article 370 an internal issue of India and said they stood by the country in its fight against terrorism. They also condemned the killing of six labourers from West Bengal by terrorists on Tuesday.