Chief of the separatist Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Yasin Malik, wrote to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday warning against changing the status of Gilgit-Baltistan, once a part of Jammu and Kashmir and now occupied by Pakistan.
“Apprehensions have been raised in various quarters that your government may reach a consensus to merge Gilgit-Baltistan with Pakistan. This will have implications on the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir. If Pakistan imposes its sovereign writ over Gilgit Baltistan, India will then have a political and moral right to integrate Kashmir with it. In one stroke, Pakistan will be helping India to consolidate its writ on Kashmir,” reads the letter from Mr. Malik, who is for independent Jammu and Kashmir.
According to media reports, Pakistan is holding a meeting to discuss the future of Gilgit Baltistan on January 14.
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“Reports suggest that the China-Pakistan corridor is making you change the constitutional status of Gilgit Baltistan. Economic development is good, but you have no moral right to make a policy that will adversely affect the future of millions of Kashmiris,” said Mr. Malik.
He recalled his meeting with the Pakistan Prime Minister in 2009. “You clearly vindicated Kashmiri position on Gilgit Baltistan and opposed any proposal that will change its legal or constitutional status.”
Mr. Malik appealed to Mr. Sharif “to think of the legacy he will leave if he becomes party to depriving people of their historical, political and moral rights, for which they have given their lives.”
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