NEWDELHI: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah repeated his assertion that India is not going to be able to retrieve Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and that Pakistan is not going to be able to snatch any more territory from India. He said eventually, the Kashmir issue wold be settled with the Line of Control (LoC) as the border between the South Asian neighbours.
Speaking at the India Conclave in New Delhi, Abdullah was responding to a question on whether he thought the Kashmir issue could ever be resolved. “It will be resolved. It will certainly be resolved. But you have to first acknowledge that a part of Kashmir is with Pakistan. And you have to acknowledge that you are not going to able to take it back. And Pakistan has not acknowledge there is no way they are going to take any more of the land. The path to resolution lies beyond this,” he said.
“And when the resolution comes, it is only realistic that what we today call the Line of Control will eventually become the boundary between India and Pakistan,” he added.
Abdullah held his calm despite a number of heated exchanges with members of the audience who interrupted him or shouted questions at him. Addressing one such question on what he thought of Pakistan or anti-nationalism as a bigger threat, the former J&K chief minister said, “Both are threats. We have to address both these threats. But, I think the bigger threat is internal.”
Abdullah also argued that it would be incorrect to call Pakistan a rouge state. “Yes, there is rogue army in Pakistan. You have to know that not every Pakistani hates India. There are many Pakistanis who love us,” he said.
Bureau Report
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