SRINAGAR: Kashmir’s Hurriyat Conference (g) has stated that Home Minister Raj Nath Singh had admitted the fact that Kashmir has not integrated into India.
The statement issued to the media said “Singh’s assertion that Sardar Patel would have integrated Kashmir into India, had not Nehru stopped him is a fact and it means Kashmir is not part of India.”
“It was converted into a dispute and taken to the UN where the people were given the right of self determination,” the statement said. “This is the promise that India has not kept so far and instead insists it is an integral part.”
Hurriyat statement is in response to Rajnath’s weekend speech.
“I would like to say that nobody needs to be worried about Kashmir. No power in the world can stop us from resolving the issue,” the Home Minister said at Bardoli in Gujarat. “Sardar Patel got Junagad and Hyderabad to become part of the country. Had Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru not stopped him from also deciding the fate of Kashmir, then, I think, the Kashmir issue would not have been before us today.”
Accusing Pakistan of napaak (impious) activities of sending militants into India, Singh said Modi government is tackling militancy.
“We have given a free hand to the Army. I have said you are free to act against militants,” Singh was quoted saying. The strategy, he said, has resulted in a “record” number of militants being killed. “We do not need to tell you the numbers. Sometimes it is one (militant) in a day or two or four or six. The men of our Army keep greeting them with Jai Sri Ram. It has never happened before that militants have been killed in such a large number.”
On Pakistan, Rajnath Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “tried his best”, for peaceful resolution of bilateral issues. “He even went to Pakistan breaking all protocol, but Pakistan is not refraining from its activities,” Singh said. “This can’t continue for long.” Later, he said, army and BSFG was told to “stop the practice of showing “white flags” to Pakistan in response to their firings at the Indo-Pak border.”
Singh said he came to know about the practice of showing white flags to Pakistan, after he talked to the BSF chief following news that five Indian citizens had been killed in firing by Pakistani personnel.
He (The BSF DG) “told me it is an old practice to show white flag in response to Pakistani firing… this is to tell them that we want peace. I asked the DG as to what was Pakistan response to our flags being shown 16 times. “On telephone I told him not to show white flag for the 17th time. And it is my standing order that while first bullet shall not be fired by India, if we receive even a single bullet, we will retaliate.”
