New Delhi: In a stinging humiliation of Pakistan globally, Saudi Arabia has chopped off Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) from its map.
“Saudi Arab removes Pakistani occupied Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan from Pakistan’s map!!!!,” PoK activist Amjad Ayub Mirza tweeted.
He also tweeted a picture that was captioned, “Saudi Arabia’s Diwali gift to India– removes Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir from Pakistan’s map.”.
According to media reports, Saudi Arabia released a 20 Riyal banknote to commemorate its presidency of organising the G-20 Summit on November 21-22.
It was further reported that the world map displayed on the banknote does not show Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Kashmir as parts of Pakistan.
This move by the Islamic Kingdom is a slap on Pakistan’s face which recently released the latter’s new political map.
Saudi Arabia’s step is nothing short of an attempt to disgrace Pakistan, which also seems to be “adapting to its new bloc”.
This comes in the backdrop of Saudi Arabia leading the deal of ‘normalisation’ of ties between Bahrain with Israel. Reports suggest that Saudi Arabi and Israel will soon open-up their embassies, after US elections. It can now be anybody’s guess that all the 22 Arab states are likely to reciprocate their ‘embassy move’ with Israel, with the exception of Pakistan, Iran, and may be Qatar.
In September, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that they have seen reports regarding elections to the so-called “Gilgit-Baltistan” Assembly to be held on November 15 and took a strong objection to it.
“The Government of India conveyed strong protest to Pakistan Government and reiterated that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the so-called Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of India,” the MEA stated.