As Pakistan continues to rake up at various international fora, the issue of abrogation of Article 370 giving special status to Jammu & Kashmir, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said here on Friday Pakistan Occupied Kashmir(POK) is controlled by terrorists.  He also said Gilgit-Baltistan and POK are under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

Making these assertions, the Army Chief said “when we say Jammu & Kashmir, the complete State of Jammu & Kashmir includes PoK and Gilgit Baltistan. Therefore, PoK and Gilgit Baltistan become an occupied territory — a territory which has been illegally occupied by our western neighbour.”

Moreover, that part of Jammu & Kashmir occupied by Pakistan, is actually controlled by terrorists, he said.

On the issue of abrogation of Article 370 by the government on August 5, Rawat said it was brought in as a temporary provision. “When Article 370 was introduced with the word temporary there was no objection... therefore why is it that Pakistan has suddenly raised the ante on the Article 370,” he said while delivering the Cariappa memorial lecture to mark the Infantry Day.

Hitting out at Pakistan for objecting to the latest move by India, he reasoned Islamabad was raking it “because the territory which has been illegally occupied by Pakistan is not controlled by the Pakistani establishment, it is controlled by terrorists. PoK is actually a terrorist-controlled country or a terrorist-controlled part of Pakistan.” He also said Pakistan is making desperate attempts to disrupt normalcy in Kashmir.

His observations came at a time when India scaled up its narrative on the abrogation of Article 370 and status of POK in various world platforms with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently stating “we expect one day we will have physical jurisdiction” over PoK and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh saying any talks with Pakistan, if they are held, would be over PoK and not Jammu & Kashmir.

On Sunday, when the Indian Army carried out punitive strikes in sectors in POK opposite Tangdhar to flatten terrorist launch pads, Rawat had said people “working behind the scenes,” at the instance of terrorists, were making attempts at disrupting peace in Jammu & Kashmir. He also said intelligence reports of terrorists crossing the border had increased since the centre scrapped special status to the state.

More than 2,450 ceasefire violations have taken place since January this year including 850 since August 5.  Moreover, 15 terrorists were killed in encounters in the last two months while eight civilians were also killed.  At least 35 terrorist initiated actions were also recorded in the same period. 

Pakistan is violating ceasefire in an effort to gain moral ascendancy over the Indian army posts guarding the Line of Control(LOC)on the one hand and give covering fire to enable the militants to sneak into Kashmir on the other hand.