PoK residents should join India; we consider them our own: Rajnath Singh

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday asked the residents of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to come and join India as "we consider you as our own unlike Pakistan which treats you as foreigners".

Addressing an election rally in the Ramban assembly constituency in support of BJP candidate Rakesh Singh Thakur, the Union minister came down heavily on the National Conference-Congress alliance over its poll promise of restoring Article 370 and said it is impossible as long as the BJP is there.

He welcomed the "sea change" in the overall security situation in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, and said youths now carry laptops and computers instead of pistols and revolvers.

"Support the BJP to form the next government in J-K so that we can facilitate massive development in the region. 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," the defence .