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State broadcaster Doordarshan will begin including weather forecasts for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the northern areas starting Friday, a move designed to deliver a daily message to Islamabad that it was illegally holding on to these territories.
A senior government official told the Hindustan Times that the Doordarshan National, DD News, All India Radio and Kashir channels had been asked to include these territories in their daily weather bulletins along with other locations in the country. The Doordarshan Kashmir channel is broadcast on television in the Jammu and Kashmir trade union territory.
The Doordarshan weather bulletin will have forecasts for Mirpur and Muzaffarabad in occupied Kashmir and Gilgit in the northern areas.
“The move will also be a constant reminder to the Imran Khan government and its few supporters that India will not allow Islamabad to take steps to legitimize its illegal occupation,” said a senior government official.
The decision coincided with fierce protests in New Delhi this week over the order of the Pakistani High Court that provided for the creation of a provisional administration in Gilgit-Baltistan to hold new elections.
India claims the entire former state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the Gilgit-Baltistan region, which received quasi-provincial status from the Pakistani government in 2009.
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In January 2019, the Pakistani High Court ruled that its powers were extended to “Gilgit-Baltistan”, sparking a strong New Delhi protest, which declared that “the so-called ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’ has been, is and will continue to be a integral part of India. “
Last week, the Supreme Court of Pakistan went one step further and allowed the government to amend the 2018 Order of the Gilgit-Baltistan Government to establish a provisional administration in the region to hold new elections. The order was issued in response to a request by the Imran Khan government.
Also read: First CPEC and now China’s Covid-19: Gilgit-Baltistan’s growing problems | Opinion
On May 4, the Ministry of External Affairs issued a demarche, a formal diplomatic note, about a senior Pakistani diplomat stationed in the national capital.
New Delhi said that neither Islamabad nor its judiciary had locus standi in territories occupied illegally and forcibly by him.
“India completely rejects such actions and continued attempts to bring material changes in the Pakistan-occupied areas of the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Instead, Pakistan should immediately abandon all areas under its illegal occupation, ”said the written protest.
