PoK weather is a-changing! There’s a storm brewing over Pakistan Occupied Kashmir – PoK, the Indian territory which was illegally occupied by Pakistan. And, because of which UN resolutions asked Pakistan to fully withdraw.
Since this government came and specifically after the abrogation of Article 370, India has been talking openly about India’s ownership of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Pok Weather part of Indian news
The next stage of the actions is now practically underway. India is no longer complaining about PoK being in Pakistan’s hands. The new weather bulletins on Doordarshan, All India Radio etc are now broadcasting the weather in areas in PoK. In the future, new areas from Ghakuch in PoK will also be added to the list.
In a subtle change, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has started issuing weather bulletin for areas under the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), including Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad region.The weather agency now lists local weather report and forecast for towns in Gilgit Baltistan region in its daily forecast for ‘north-east India’. As per reports, Ghizer, the area in the far-west area of Ghakuch in PoK will also be uploaded shortly. (Source: IMD forecasts now include PoK’s Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad)
What this means is that India is formally stating and more importantly, demonstrating, that PoK is part of India. The next step will be to – integrate it as part of India, when the time is ripe.
Just before this action, India formally communicated its intention of territorial ownership by issuing a strong demarche to the Pakistani diplomat.
India has demarched senior Pakistani diplomat and registered a strong protest against Pakistan’s Supreme Court’s order on the ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’ area which is under illegal occupation of Pakistan. Last week, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ‘permitted’ conducting elections in Gilgit-Baltistan area.Opindia
The Indian side clearly said to the Pakistani diplomat that Pakistan had no locus standi in Jammu and Kashmir, which includes Pakistan Occupied area.
“Govt of Pakistan or its judiciary has no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it. India completely rejects such actions and continued attempts to bring material changes in Pakistan occupied areas of the Indian territory of Jammu & Kashmir.”
Just last year, India’s Union Defence Minister had said unequivocally about how serious India was about PoK and its people.
“If they (Pak) repeat it, then they should think what will become of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir…Human rights violations are committed against Balochs and Pashtuns there. If it continues, no power in will be able to protect Pakistan from getting further divided into pieces,” Economic Times
PoK take over – Easier said than done
PoK Weather is but one step. Not the real one though. But it will be part of something big.
It is not easy to take PoK even if Indian forces were ready and capable. That problem is China. Pakistan has handed a lot of land over to China. And
The Indian Army’s 15 Corps headquartered in Srinagar; the 14 Corps headquartered in Leh and the 16 Corps with HQ at Nagrota have previously war-gamed punitive strikes on Pakistan to recover PoK—not just once, but on several occasions in the last five years, according to Gen Rawat. The Indian Army can mount a joint infantry and artillery attack along the 740-km Line of Control (LoC) spanning the geographical areas covered under the three Corps with around 100,000 soldiers to carry out a punitive strike. Fortunately, India currently occupies the higher positions in the undulating terrain along the LoC. However, the trouble spot for India is the 110-km Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) along the Siachen Glacier. China, using the Karakoram Pass and the Shaksgam Valley—areas ceded by Pakistan to China—can synchronise a simultaneous attack through the Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK areas to cut off Indian troops posted in the glacier (see graphics).New Indian Express
Presence of China and its investments in CPEC make the whole exercise very tricky.
Conclusion: Takeover but the China problem
Truth is that India owns the entire Kashmir. It may no be that easy. If it was just about handling Pakistan, it may not have been that tough a task. But to handle a two front war, with one of them being China, is not going to be easy.