GIGIT BALTISTAN

Subject: Security

Context: India on Sunday slammed Pakistan for its attempt to accord provincial status to the “so-called Gilgit-Baltistan”, saying it is intended to camouflage the “illegal” occupation of the region by Islamabad.

Concept:

• Gilgit-Baltistan has functioned as a “provincial autonomous region” since 2009.
• Besides, India has conveyed that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of India by virtue of its fully legal and irrevocable accession.

Location of the region

• Located in the northern Pakistan. It borders China in the North, Afghanistan in the west, Tajikistan in the north west and Kashmir in the south east.
• It shares a geographical boundary with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and India considers it as part of the undivided Jammu and Kashmir, while Pakistan sees it as a separate from PoK.
• It has a regional Assembly and an elected Chief Minister.
• China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) also passes through this region.
• Gilgit-Baltistan is home to five of the “eight-thousanders” and to more than fifty peaks above 7,000 metres (23,000 ft).
• Three of the world’s longest glaciers outside the polar regions are found in Gilgit-Baltistan.