IMD chief confirms 'illegally occupied' PoK cities included in new weather forecast format

IMD Director General M Mohapatra issuing his first response after IMD's Regional Meteorological Centre started including cities under Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in its forecasts, in a departure from the previous format, said that the weather forecasting agency has been doing it ever since Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two union territories. 

'All those places come under the Indian territory'

Speaking to ANI, he said, "I want to inform that for a long time, the IMD is issuing weather forecast for the entire region of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Whichever regions are there under this area, we are issuing weather forecast on a daily basis at a national level. At a regional level, it was not being mentioned but since the past two days, it has been started. All those places (illegally occupied by Pakistan) comes under the Indian territory."

The IMD has started including Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad, which are parts of PoK, under the Jammu and Kashmir meteorological sub-division since May 5, said Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the Regional Meteorological Department that gives a forecast for the northwest meteorological division of the IMD. 

These cities of PoK have now found a place in the overall forecast of the northwest division. The northwest division consists of nine sub-divisions  Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi-Chandigarh-Haryana, Punjab, east Uttar Pradesh, west Uttar Pradesh, east Rajasthan and west Rajasthan. 

India lodges protest with Islamabad 

This comes days after the Pakistan Supreme Court allowed Islamabad to amend a 2018 administrative order to conduct general elections in the region. The Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2018 provided for administrative changes, including authorizing the Prime Minister of Pakistan to legislate on an array of subjects.

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Following the decision, India conveyed its strong protest to Pakistan over its efforts to bring "material change" to territories under its "illegal and forcible" occupation. The Ministry of External Affairs said a demarche was issued to a senior Pakistani diplomat lodging a strong protest over the court ruling and clearly conveying that the entire union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of India.

'Areas of Gilgit and Baltistan are an integral part of India'

"It was further conveyed that such actions can neither hide the illegal occupation of parts of Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh by Pakistan nor the grave human rights violations, exploitation and denial of freedom to the people residing in Pakistan occupied territories for the past seven decades," it said in a statement.

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The MEA said the government of Pakistan or its judiciary has no locus standi on territories "illegally and forcibly" occupied by it. "It was clearly conveyed that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of India by virtue of its fully legal and irrevocable accession," the MEA said.

It said India protested Islamabad's efforts to "bring material change in Pakistan occupied territories" and asked it to vacate them. "India completely rejects such actions and continued attempts to bring material changes in Pakistan occupied areas of the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir," the MEA said. "Instead, Pakistan should immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation," it added.

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(With PTI inputs)