Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that if anyone seeks to impose an anti-state agenda outside the ambit of the law through violence, the state will enforce the law with its full authority.

In a post on X, the Minister said the state will ensure that the people of Kashmir are able to exercise their right to express their views freely.

He said that at a time when elections are approaching, taking contentious issues to the court of public opinion is the true democratic course.

He further said that those who seek to impose their ideology through violence and bloodshed, rather than through the will of the people, have motives that extend beyond democratic objectives.

Khawaja Asif said that the manner in which police and security personnel were martyred and their bodies desecrated clearly indicates that such elements are unwilling to pursue the path of public opinion through elections.