Pak not weak to allow India to take PoK: Farooq

Srinagar: After his “PoK belongs to Pakistan” remark last week, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah today made another controversial statement saying Pakistan was “not weak to allow India to take that part of Jammu and Kashmir under its occupation”.

Addressing party workers in Uri area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, the former chief minister said, “How long shall we keep saying that (PoK) is our part? It (PoK) is not their father’s share. That (PoK) is Pakistan and this (J-K) is India.”

He said 70 years have “passed but they (India) could not get it (PoK)”. “Today, they (India) claim it is our part. So take it (PoK), we are also saying please take it (from Pakistan). We will also see. They (Pakistan) are not weak and are not wearing bangles. They too have atom bomb. Before we think about war, we should think how we will live as humans,” Abdullah said.

The Lok Sabha member from Srinagar had raked up controversy last week when he said that PoK belongs to Pakistan and it won’t change even if the two countries fight wars against each other.

“I tell them in plain terms not only the people of India, but also to the world that the part (of J-K) which is with Pakistan (PoK) belongs to Pakistan and this side to India. This won’t change. Let them fight how many wars they want to. This won’t change,” he had said. His comments drew the ire of the BJP and a case was also filed against him in Bihar.

“A case has been filed against me. That too by a Muslim. May God protect him. Look at his situation, he does not know Kashmir. He does not know our situation. They (Pakistan) drop a bomb, common people and soldiers die here (in Kashmir) and when a bomb is dropped from here, our people and soldiers also die there (PoK). Till when would this storm continue? Till when would the blood of innocents continue to flow,” he told his party workers.

He said he hoped a day would come when people would move freely across the Line of Control (LoC). “A day will come when you will cross the Line of Control (LoC) in such a manner as if going from one house to another. Have belief on this that such a day will come and without that, there would be no peace in this country,” he said.