It was in 1842 when for the first time a Sikh force entered Gilgit on the request of an ousted Raja which changed/reshaped the history of Gilgit. The ruler of Yasin Gohar Aman attacked the Sikh force and destroyed them. A Dogra reinforcement under General Bhoop Singh was again crushed by Gohar Aman and in 1851 and 1852, Chilas was invaded by a Dogra force and 1500 of them were killed. Similarly, the people of Hunza and Nager defeated Dogras many times.

On the night of October 31, 1947 the residence of Dogra governor in Gilgit was surrounded by Gilgit Scouts and in the morning, the governor surrendered to Gilgit Scouts. According to Brigadier Ghansara Singh’s account, he signed the document of surrender on November 3, 1947. After signing the document, the Pakistan flag was raised in scout lines and saluted. Immediately after liberation, the people from Gilgit asked the Pakistani government to take control of the agency. After liberation of Gilgit, the liberation forces moved to liberate Skardu. On August 14, 1948 Major Thapa of the 6th Jammu and Kashmir infantry, who was defending Skardu garrison surrendered after seven long months. This is how Dogras were defeated and driven out of Gilgit-Baltistan. During the 1948, 1965 and 1971 wars, the Gilgit Scouts, the Northern Scouts and the Karakoram Scouts defended all approaches to Gilgit-Baltistan successfully. During the Siachen conflict and Kargil war NLI regiments out classed a superior army. India laid a bogus claim on Gilgit-Baltistan as an integral part of Indian territory.

In 1994, India parliament passed a resolution that Gilgit-Baltistan is an integral part of India by view of Jammu and Kashmir’s accession in 1947. In the IOK assembly, there are 25 reserved vacant seats for Gilgit-Baltistan. In 2015, Indian national security advisor Ajit Doval, while addressing BSF officers said that we also have a 106-kilometre-long non-contiguous border with Afghanistan (Wakhan corridor). The importance of Gilgit-Baltistan increased initially with the construction of Karakoram Highway and now with CPEC. CPEC covers 500 kilometres in Gilgit-Baltistan, therefore the success of CPEC depends on Gilgit, the gateway. The Karakoram Highway will become the main artery for the planned CPEC, a network of roads for transporting Chinese goods through Pakistan. India has established a special cell at a cost of 500 million dollars to sabotage CPEC. Some dissident groups from abroad, at the behest of RAW, are running a campaign to incite the youth of Gilgit-Baltistan. India recently issued a new political map which has shown Azad Kashmir as a part of the newly-created union territory of IOK while Gilgit-Baltistan in the union territory of Ladakh. This move comes after August 5, 2019 when the RSS-BJP fascist regime revoked the special status of IOK by abrogating Article 370 of the Indian constitution.

The motive behind these new maps is to permanently change the status of IOK by giving India control of the entire region that it did not physically possess. In another development, India has started broadcasting the weather reports of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, showing these areas as its own territory in the bulletins. The Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan assemblies slammed India over airing their weather reports, and termed this attempt as clear evidence of frustration. India recently also protested the supreme court of Pakistan’s decision to allow the government of Pakistan to organise elections in Gilgit-Baltistan and set up a caretaker government before elections. India also demanded Pakistan to vacate Gilgit-Baltistan and warned Pakistan not to change status quo. However, they (the fascist regime) are somehow at liberty to change anything.

Pakistan rejected India’s baseless and fallacious contention regarding the supreme court’s decision to allow the federal government to conduct the upcoming general elections in Gilgit-Baltistan. The hullaballoo being raised by Indian media is mainly due to CPEC in the region and developments in Gilgit-Baltistan. The former Indian army chief general V K Singh recently said that the Indian army’s plan to take over Gilgit-Baltistan is ready. He further added that Gilgit-Baltistan belongs to India and it will come to us at the right time. The general forgot what happened to them during last year’s adventure. The response of Pakistan on February 27, 2019 is still fresh in the memories of the world; how India was humiliated.

On May 9, a twitter handle of Gilgit-Baltistan and Ladakh union territory has surfaced. The news of this account was carried by Zee 24 Kalak and The Print and it appears to be the work of RAW. India is making failed attempts to divert attention of the international community from the atrocities, extra-judicial killings and human rights violations in IOK. These nefarious Indian motives will never yield the desired results and defeat has become her fate. The people of Gilgit-Baltistan will not fall prey to Indian conspiracies as they are well aware of the fake news/lies and strategy behind such attempts. The people of Gilgit-Baltistan strongly condemn the malicious propaganda of Indian government and its media. Gilgit-Baltistan was liberated by the people themselves without any outside help and decided to join Pakistan unconditionally. The message to India is that the people of Gilgit want their identity with Pakistan. India would be well advised to refrain from interfering in the affairs of Gilgit-Baltistan. The people of Gilgit-Baltistan were, are and will remain part of Pakistan.