Pak actions can't camouflage illegal occupation of Gilgit-Baltistan: India

Reacting strongly to remarks by "so-called chief minister" of Gilgit-Baltistan, India today said Pakistan's actions regarding the area in the past few months cannot "camouflage" its "illegal occupation" of that part of Jammu and Kashmir which is "completely unacceptable".    

"We have seen media reports regarding remarks of the so-called chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan in which he said that Gilgit-Baltistan had become the 'fifth province' of Pakistan and henceforth had no connection to Kashmir," the official spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement here.

The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India by virtue of its accession to India in 1947, he said. Any action to alter the status of any part of the territory under the "illegal occupation of Pakistan has no legal basis whatsoever, and is completely unacceptable," he said.

"Pakistan's actions regarding Gilgit-Baltistan in the past few months cannot camouflage its illegal occupation of part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, nor can they hide the denial of basic rights to the people in that part for the past six decades," the spokesman said.

The newly-elected "chief minister" of Gilgit-Baltistan Mehdi Shah had said that the people of the area had decided their accession to Pakistan after getting freedom from 'Dogra rule' and now the region has become the fifth province of Pakistan and has no connection with Kashmir.