 "Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addresses a gathering during the 16th Foundation Day of IIT Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, Monday, February, 24, 2025. (Photo: PTI)")
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that India will not need military action for the full integration of Kashmir and people in Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) will one proclaim themselves as part of India and join the country at their own accord.
Since 1947-48, when Pakistan invaded the Jammu and Kashmir shortly after Independence, Pakistan has occupied around a third of the erstwhile state.
Speaking at an event in Morocco, Rajnath said that there has already been demand in the PoJK to join India.
“PoK will be ours on its own. Demands have started being made in POK. You must have heard sloganeering. I was addressing the Indian Army at a programme in Kashmir Valley five years ago and I had then said that we will not need to attack and capture PoK. It is anyway ours. The POK itself will say, ‘Main bhi Bharat Hoon’ (I am also India). That day will come,” said Rajnath in Hindi.
In 1947, weeks after Independence, Pakistan invaded the princely state of J&K that had not yet joined India. Maharaja Hari Singh of J&K acceded to India as the invasion began in exchange from protection from Pakistani forces. While Indian forces stopped Pakistani invaders from capturing Srinagar and repelled them from surrounding areas, and foiled their plans to completely occupy J&K, Pakistan ended up controlling around a third of J&K.
Pakistan has occupied areas from Kashmir region, including Muzaffarabad district; and Jammu region, including Mirpur and part of Poonch; and Gilgit-Baltistan comprising the entire Gilgit district, Ladakh region’s Skardu, and frontier areas like Hunza and Nagar. Pakistan also controlled the Shaksgam valley that it later ceded illegally to China.