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'No power can snatch away Kashmir'

India bashing is the only agenda for over-ambitious Pakistani leaders, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah said Monday.

''These leaders entertain the misconceived notion that they can reach the top only by criticising India,'' he said at a conference in Srinagar.

He went on to say that Pakistani leaders are not only fooling their own people, but also living in a make-believe world -- they work under the 'ridiculous assumption' that they can one day capture Jammu and Kashmir.

''One of their ministers (Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan) is making the people believe that the Indian army can be crushed in just 90 minutes, despite the fact that Pakistan lost the last three wars. He believes that he can replace Mr Nawaz Sharief by talking like this,'' Dr Abdullah said.

''Such leaders should know once and for all that the 900 million people of India are not going to part with even an inch of their land,'' he said.

Lashing out at the Hurriyat Conference, Dr Abdullah said: ''Some elements go to Delhi on the pretext of looking up some ailing person, but head straight towards the Pakistani embassy for engineering more bloodshed in the state,"

The CM termed the recent gunning down of 25 people in Doda district as ''barbaric.''

He reiterated that no power can snatch Jammu and Kashmir from India and stressed the need for maintaining peace and amity so that the security forces and state police could concentrate on the main task of eliminating Pakistan-sponsored militancy.

UNI

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