Gilgit- Baltistan areas are India's integral parts: Says MEA
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India criticized Pakistan's move to give provincial status for Gilgit- Baltistan area, which India claims as its integral part. Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan Prime minister Imran Khan had announced Gilgit -Baltistan as its fifth province.
India denounced the move, saying that "the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, including the so-called areas of Gilgit - Baltistan are an integral part of India", the statement by the Ministry of External Affairs read." And it is by virtue of legal, complete and irrevocable accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the union of India in 1947, it added
The statement also emphasized that Pakistan has no locus standi on territories forcefully and illegally occupied by it.
The move on Sunday by Pakistan replaced the special autonomy status that Gilgit -Baltistan area enjoyed by the "Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self governance Order of 2009". Internal clashes in the area prompted Pakistan to repeal its special status.