Gilgit-Baltistan

About:

• Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) was formerly known as the Northern Areas. 
• It is the northernmost territory administered by Pakistan, providing the country’s only territorial frontier, and thus a land route, with China, where it meets the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
• To G-B’s west is Afghanistan, to its south is Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and to the east, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
• It is Indian territory, part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir that acceded to India in full after Independence, and which has been under illegal Pakistani occupation. 
• Gilgit Baltistan has been under the control of Pakistan since April 1949, when the leadership of the so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was forced to sign away this territory to Pakistan. 
• However, the region does not have any place in the constitutional framework of Pakistan and has been kept under the tight control of the central government. 
• Gilgit-Baltistan shares a border with Azad Kashmir, together with which it is referred to by the United Nations as "Pakistan administered Kashmir". 

History:

• Gilgit was part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, but it was ruled directly by the British, who had taken it on lease in 1935 from Hari Singh, the Hindu ruler of the Muslim-majority state.
• On October 22, 1947, with Hari Singh dithering on accession to India, Pashtun tribal militiamen along with Pakistani forces poured into the Kashmir Valley and marched towards Srinagar in accordance with a plan known as Operation Gulmarg. On the way, the lashkars engaged in massive plunder and looting in Baramulla.
• Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession with India on October 26, 1947. The Indian Army then landed in the Kashmir Valley and began an operation to push back the Pakistani invaders.