Pakistan’s new map exercise is political absurdity: India

Hours after Pakistan unveiled a new political map that laid claim to Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh union territories as well as parts of the Indian state of Gujarat, India rejected it and termed it “an exercise in political absurdity”, adding that these “ridiculous assertions have neither legal validity nor international credibility”. India said Islamabad’s move “confirms the reality of Pakistan’s obsession with territorial aggrandisement supported by cross-border terrorism”.

The move announced by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday comes on the eve of the first anniversary on August 5 of India revoking Article 370 that had granted special status to the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir. So far Pakistan had stopped short of calling Kashmir as part of its territory officially and had always pushed for a UN-mandated plebiscite. But strangely, while the demand for a plebiscite will continue on the part of Islamabad, Pakistan has gone ahead and declared that J&K is part of Pakistan along with some portions of Ladakh to the North and Gujarat to the West. The move is being seen as an attempt to provoke India.

Recently, Nepal had also gone ahead and unveiled a new map that showed that showed portions of territory in India’s Uttarakhand as part of that country.