India has asked Pakistan to immediately vacate from the Indian territory of Gilgit-Baltistan which the Imran Khan government on Sunday declared as its provisional fifth province.
Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that his government has decided to grant the “provisional-provincial status” to Gilgit-Baltistan, a part of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, illegally occupied by Pakistan in 1947.
In a statement issued in New Delhi by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said: “The Government of India firmly rejects the attempt by Pakistan to bring material changes to a part of Indian territory, under its illegal and forcible occupation.” The Indian government reiterated that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the area of so-called Gilgit-Baltistan, are an integral part of India by virtue of the legal, complete and irrevocable accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Union of India in 1947.
Srivastava said that Pakistan has “no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied” by it, adding that the move is meant to “camouflage its illegal occupation” of the area but it cannot “hide the grave human rights violations, exploitation and denial of freedom” of the people for over seven decades. “We call upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation,” he added.
Earlier, The Pakistan PM during his visit to Gilgit-Baltistan said that he had decided to give the provisional province status to the region “keeping in mind the UN Security Council’s resolutions”.
Backed by the Pakistani Army, Imran Khan on the occasion did not miss the opportunity to praise the military, which is facing stiff challenge from the political opposition headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “Pakistan is secure today because of its armed forces. Our army is the main reason why we have not suffered thesame fate as many other Muslim countries,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Pakistan Supreme Court allowed the government to conduct elections in the region. The election will be held on 15 November, Imran Khan declared, despite India’s opposition and huge anger in the region.
Pakistan’s move also comes amid huge opposition from its domestic groups, which accuse it of systematically exploiting the region. Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said the people of Gilgit-Baltistan will overwhelmingly vote against the candidates of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.
Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan move comes more than a year after India ended the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.
Recently, Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Pakistan, had removed Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan from the Pakistan map on its new banknote after India asked it to take “urgent corrective steps” about the “gross misrepresentation”.
WITH AGENCY INPUTS