India slammed Pakistan's attempts to convert Gilgit Baltistan as the country's fifth province through an official statement on November 1, 2020. India's statement was released hours after the Pakistani government led by Imran Khan accorded “provisional provincial status” to Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Union Ministry of External Affairs in a strongly worded statement said that India firmly rejects the attempt made by Pakistan to bring material changes to a part of the Indian Territory, under its illegal and forcible occupation.
Please see our statement on Pakistan Government’s decision to accord “provisional provincial status” to the so-called “Gilgit-Baltistan” : pic.twitter.com/8XzPT0aSFH
— Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) November 1, 2020
The External Affairs Ministry reiterated in the statement that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the so-called area 'Gilgit Baltistan' are an integral part of India by the virtue of complete, legal and irrevocable accession of J&K into the Indian Union in 1947.
India further stated that the Pakistani government has no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it. The External Affairs Ministry said that such attempts by Pakistan to camouflage its illegal occupation cannot hide the grave the human rights violations and denial of freedom to the people living in these Pakistan-occupied territories for over seven decades.
India then called upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation, instead of seeking to alter the status of these Indian territories.
Gilgit-Baltistan |
| • The so-called area of Gilgit-Baltistan was formerly known as the Northern Areas. It is currently under the illegal occupation of Pakistan, as part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). • The area borders Azad Kashmir to the south, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to the west, Xinjiang region of China, to the east and northeast, Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor to the north and Indian-administered union territories of J&K and Ladakh to the southeast. • Gilgit-Baltistan is almost six times the size of Azad Kashmir. |
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