Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane, in his first press briefing in the role, said that forces are ready to take appropriate action to gain control over the Pakistani side of Kashmir. The statement came five months after India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyan Jaishankar said that he expected India to gain physical control over the Pakistan-administered part of the Kashmir region one day.
“There is a parliamentary resolution that entire Jammu and Kashmir is a part of India. If Parliament wants it, then that area (Pakistan controlled Kashmir) also should belong to us. When we get orders to that effect, we'll take appropriate action”, Indian Army Chief Naravane replied to the media in New Delhi on Saturday.
#WATCH Army Chief on if PoK can be part of India as stated by political leadership: There is a parliamentary resolution that entire J&K is part of India.If Parliament wants it,then,PoK also should belong to us. When we get orders to that effect, we'll take appropriate action pic.twitter.com/P8Rbfwpr2x
— ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2020
Earlier, in October 2019, the then army and now the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat said that territory illegally occupied by Pakistan “is not controlled by the Pakistani establishment, it is controlled by terrorists. Pakistan administered Kashmir is actually a terrorist controlled country or a terrorist controlled part of Pakistan".
The Army chief said that the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between the two nuclear-armed nations is a very active. “Intelligence alerts are received on daily basis and they are looked into very seriously”, Naravane said.
Relations between India and Pakistan have traditionally been tense over competing claims to parts of the Kashmir region since the countries gained independence from the British Empire in 1947.
The recent tension between India and Pakistan ignited after New Delhi revoked the seven decades old temporary special status accorded to its administered Jammu and Kashmir state and later bifurcated it into two federally administered territories in August 2019. Islamabad termed the move as a violation of a bilateral treaty, the 1972 Simla Agreement, and the UN Convention, as well.
