Pakistan rejects Indian weather bulletin for AJK, GB

KARACHI, Pakistan

Pakistan on Friday rejected inclusion of Kashmir valley under its control and northern Gilgit-Baltistan region by India's state-run TV and radio channels in their weather bulletins.

The move came days after New Delhi declared Pakistan-administered Kashmir and scenic Gilgit-Baltistan region, which borders neighboring China, its "part", with Indian officials saying the private broadcasters will also be advised to carry weather reports from the disputed region in their news bulletins.

"Like the so-called 'political maps' issued last year by India, this move is also legally void, contrary to reality, and in violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions. This is another mischievous Indian action in support of a spurious claim and further evidence of India’s irresponsible behavior," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Aisha Farooqui said during the weekly briefing in the capital Islamabad.

"No illegal and unilateral steps by India can change the 'disputed' status of Jammu and Kashmir, recognized as such by the international community including the United Nations. Such moves by the Government of India cannot prejudice the inalienable right to self-determination of the people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir," she maintained.

Pakistan, Farooqui added, will urge India not to make baseless assertions and to abstain from misleading the world community through unfounded claims on regions that constitute internationally recognized disputed territories.

Already strained relations between the two nuclear neighbors have plummeted to a new low after India scrapped the longstanding special status of Jammu and Kashmir last August.

Since then, the two border forces have exchanged fire on an almost daily basis along the Line of Control (LoC), a de facto border that divides the highly militarized zone between the two neighbors.

Jammu and Kashmir is held by India and Pakistan in parts, and claimed by both in full. A small sliver is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought four wars -- in 1948, 1965, 1971, and 1999 -- three of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against the Indian rule for independence, or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.