• Source:JND
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A Day after Omar Abdullah stated that he believes the execution of Afzal Guru, the convict in the 2001 Parliament attack "served no purpose", Defence Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh responded on Sunday, calling Abdullah's remarks "unfortunate".

Addressing a rally in Ramban in poll-bound Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said, "It is unfortunate that Omar Abdullah made such remarks. If Afzal Guru shouldn't have been hanged, then what should we have done? Should we have publicly garlanded him?

Singh also urged residents of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to join India, emphasising that India views them as its own, unlike Pakistan, which treats them as foreigners.

“Form a government here too, seeing the development here, the people of PoK will say that we do not want to stay with Pakistan, we want to go with India. we consider the people of PoK as our own, come and join us. I have received information, some border fencing work is going on, that border fencing work will also be completed,” the Defence Minister added.

Rajnath Singh further stated that despite claims from Congress, NC, and PDP that the BJP has discriminated against the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP welcomes public criticism of any wrongdoing and does not seek support through secrecy.

‘We Abrogated Article 370 For Happiness Of J&K’

Welcoming the significant improvement in the overall security situation in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, Singh said, “You people are fortunate, we have abrogated Article 370. We will make J&K a model state in next ten years if voted to power. There will be so much development that the people in PoK on seeing this should say that we do not want to live with Pakistan and instead will go to India.”

Singh’s statement comes a day after Abdullah said, "The Jammu and Kashmir government had nothing to do with Afzal Guru's execution, otherwise you would have to do with the state government's permission, which I can tell you in no uncertain terms would have been forthcoming. I don't believe any purpose was served by executing him."