India's northward development will be complete after reaching Gilgit-Baltistan: Defence min

Srinagar: India's northward journey of development will be complete after reaching Gilgit and Baltistan, parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday while referring to the 1994 resolution passed in the Parliament on getting back the territories "under illegal occupation" of the neighbouring country.

Singh, who was addressing the Shaurya Diwas function here to mark India's first military victory after independence, also said that Pakistan is "committing atrocities" against people in its occupied Kashmir and will have to bear its consequences.

Asserting that discrimination against the people of Jammu and Kashmir ended under the leadership and guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Article 370 was abrogated, he said, "this brought a new dawn of hopes in the region."

"Kashmir and Ladakh today are on an accelerated path of development. This region is touching new heights of development...We have only started our northward journey. Our journey will be complete when we fully implement the unanimous resolution passed by the Parliament on 22 February 1994 and we reach our remaining areas like Gilgit and Baltistan," Singh said.

Prime Minister Modi also, in a rare departure from precedence, in his independence day speech in 2016 brought up the situation in Pakistan-occupied territories, and said the people of Balochistan and Gilgit thanked him for raising their issues.

Singh said Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookherjee had started a "Mahayajna" for full integration of Jammu and Kashmir which was completed on 5 August 2019.

Referring to the atrocities committed by Pakistan against the people in PoK, the defence minister said the neighbouring country will have to "bear its consequences".

"I would like to ask Pakistan about the rights given to the people living in our areas where it has maintained illegal occupation... We keep on hearing about the inhuman acts committed against innocent Indians for which Pakistan is fully responsible. And here I am talking about Pakistan-occupied Kashmir," he added.