Asserting that the entire Indian security forces would not be able to defend the nation from terrorists, National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday called for a dialogue between the India and Pakistan to end violence at the border.
"For how long do we want to see innocents being killed (in the border areas)? How much the army can defend us? Even if the entire Indian Army comes then they will not be able to defend against the terrorists. There is only one way and that is to talk to them," Abdullah said at a press conference here.
The former state chief minister also reiterated his earlier stance that PoK belonged to Pakistan and that India should be content with Jammu and Kashmir, saying that both nations do not have the courage to take each others' territories.
"Farooq Abdullah will say this again and again. Not for the last 15 years but ever since I entered politics, I have never felt that these two sides can be united. Neither do we have the courage to take their territory, nor do they have the courage to take ours. We are also a nuclear power; they are also a nuclear power," he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had earlier condemned Abdullah's remark on the PoK and said that it was an insult to India.
Congress leader Manish Tewari, however, extended his full support to Abdullah's statement, saying that neither Pakistan could take Kashmir nor could India take control of the PoK.
Abdullah had earlier courted controversy with his remark that India should give up its conquest of trying to control the PoK as it belonged to Pakistan.
"That is part of Pakistan and it will continue to remain so. This (Jammu and Kashmir) is part of India and it will continue to remain so. The only solution is that both India and Pakistan talk and find some way out through negotiations," he told the media.