‘PoK must be given back to India’: Congress’ Salman Khurshid backs Centre’s move on Article 370, hails Operation Sindoor | India News

Salman Khurshid (ANI photo)

NEW DELHI: Congress veteran and former Union minister Salman Khurshid, a member of the all-party delegation currently touring Asia, on Friday praised the BJP-led government for abrogation of Article 370. He also commended India’s strong military response under Operation Sindoor after Pakistan-sponsored terror attack in J&K’s Pahalgam.Khurshid also reaffirmed India’s long-standing demand that Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) must be returned to India.“Kashmir had a major problem for a long time, much of that was reflected in the thinking of the government and in Article 370, which somehow gave an impression that it was separated from the rest of country. But Article 370 was abrogated and it was finally put to an end because so much time has past. Subsequently, there was election and J&K observed 65% participation in election. There’s an elected government in Jammu and Kashmir today,” said former external affairs minister.He added, “Nobody can be told to give up a part of your country, Kashmir and we are family together. Nobody can break up our family.”Speaking to ANI, Khurshid said India’s position remains clear: talks with Pakistan can only happen if there is verifiable commitment to peace and a complete halt to terror activities, including with respect to the Indus Waters Treaty.“There is a long standing unanimous resolution of Parliament of India saying that the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir must be re-vacated and given back to India… even in the assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, the seats that should have been in that area are kept vacant just for this reason… that’s one important factor,” he said.He further mentioned that multiple peace overtures by India had been derailed by Pakistan’s consistent use of terrorism as a tactic.“The second is that the government has reiterated this because you know, often questions are asked about will you talk, will you not talk, etc. We have expressed our distress that repeated attempts to talk and negotiate have been betrayed by Pakistan by a subsequent attack and several attacks that happened over the years,” Khurshid said.He also pointed out that the Indus Waters Treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan ends its support for terror.“But the government has said clearly that talks can happen only when the commitment of Pakistan to peace is clear that their support for terrorism is cogently shown to have stopped, and only then can there be a conversation with Pakistan. And that includes the Indus Water Treaty being put in abeyance,” he said.Khurshid defended India’s retaliatory strikes after the Pahalgam attack, describing them as necessary kinetic actions against terror hubs in Pakistan and PoK.“So it has been made clear that now we are taking several steps, steps that we took which are called kinetic steps of trying to eliminate the terrorist hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which is the first thing we did. And then when there was a retaliation without escalating any further, we responded… by neutralising the basis from which retaliation was coming,” he said.On the diplomatic front, Khurshid praised Indonesia’s strong support for India’s stance.“I believe that Indonesia was far more supportive than we were even expecting… They reiterated the condolence and the support messages that had already come from the president and Asean headquarters,” he said.He added that the secretary general of Asean had been briefed and other member nations may take up the matter further in upcoming meetings.“The issue now is of course Asean at its next meeting can take up the matter further… as far as the government and the representatives of Indonesia are concerned, they were very, very supportive, including the political parties,” he said.Congress leader also said that Pakistan’s attempts to spread a false narrative around the attacks were strongly rejected.“They were extremely supportive of India’s position. And the so-called narrative that was pushed by the chief of army staff in Pakistan… was completely, completely negated and rejected in our conversations,” he said.The delegation, led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, includes MPs Aparajita Sarangi (BJP), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Brij Lala (BJP), John Brittas (CPM), Pradan Baruah (BJP), Hemang Joshi (BJP), Salman Khurshid, and Mohan Kumar.As part of India’s global outreach campaign countering Pakistan’s narrative on terrorism, the team has visited Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with further stops planned in the region.