India Lodges 'Strong Protest' Against June 7 Gilgit Baltistan Elections
New Delhi: India today lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over its plans to hold elections to what Islamabad calls the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly on June 7.
In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) put the words "general assembly" and "Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly" in quotes. The assembly is a unicameral legislature of Pakistan-controlled Gilgit-Baltistan. India considers the territory its own as part of its claim over the whole of Kashmir. In maps released in 2019, the home ministry placed Gilgit Baltistan in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
It said that the elections were to be held "in the Indian territories illegally and forcibly occupied by Pakistan" and reiterated India's stance that the region is Indian territory.
"The Government of India reiterated its well-known position that the entire Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, including the so-called “Gilgit-Baltistan”, are integral and inalienable parts of India as a result of complete, legal and irrevocable accession of Jammu & Kashmir to India in 1947," the MEA said.
Efforts by Pakistan, like elections, "cannot mask the underlying issues of grave human rights violations, political repression, economic exploitation and denial of freedom in territories illegally occupied by Pakistan," the MEA said.
New Delhi said it also categorically rejects any attempts by Pakistan to "bring material change to areas under Pakistan’s illegal occupation, and underlines that such actions cannot hide the fact that Pakistan illegally remains in possession of Indian territories, which it must vacate."
India has a history of protesting political activity at Gilgit Baltistan.
In 2023, the MEA said that New Delhi had “raised concerns” about the then US ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome’s tour of Gilgit Baltistan and also objected to the parallel drawn by then American envoy to India, Eric Garcetti, to the US delegation’s visit to Srinagar for a G20 event. This note came 10 days after the visit.
In 2020, India had protested against the Pakistan Supreme Court’s order allowing elections to be held in Gilgit Baltistan, by asserting that Pakistani institutions have “no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it”.
In January 2019, Pakistan Supreme Court had explicitly extended its jurisdiction to Gilgit Baltistan in a written order on the province’s constitutional status. India had also protested at that time.
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