PoK and Aksai Chin also integral part of India: Amit Shah

New Delhi, Aug 06: Home Minister Amit Shah firmly backed the Union Government's decision to do away with Article 370 and rubbished Congress' charge that introduction of the bill and the resolution were a violation of the rights of the people.

Shah today moved the resolution to revoke Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in Lok Sabha.

"Article 370 which granted special status to, had to go as it was the root of terrorism in the state and was the biggest hurdle to normalcy. Nothing will happen... It won't be allowed to turn into another Kosovo," Shah said in Parliament.

"Whenever I talk about Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Aksai Chin comes under it and can die for it," Shah said while snapping back at a comment by a Congress MP who said, "I don't think you are thinking about PoK, you violated all rules and converted a state into a Union Territory overnight."

Shah said there has been a long-standing demand for giving Union Territory status to Ladakh which was fulfilled by the Narendra Modi government. "Kashmir is an integral part of India, there is no doubt over it. When I talk about Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin are included in it," he said.

Dismissing opposition's charge that introduction of the bill and the resolution were a violation of the rights of the people, Shah said nobody can stop him from introducing a resolution on Kashmir in Parliament. The home minister also said the UT of Jammu and Kashmir will have an assembly with a chief minister and MLAs.

The government on Monday revoked some provisions of the Article 370 to take away Jammu and Kashmir's special status, and proposed bifurcation of the state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, a bold and far- reaching decision that seeks to redraw the map and future of a region at the centre of a protracted militancy movement.

Fulfilling an electoral promise of the BJP less than 90 days after the Modi 2.0 government took power, Shah had announced the decision in the Rajya Sabha, which approved both the resolution and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation bill.