Kashmiris oppose Pakistan's Northern Areas package

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Kashmiri politicians opposed a Pakistani plan on Monday they say is aimed at integrating the strategic but disputed Northern Areas into Pakistan, arguing it will undermine their case for independence from India.

The Northern Areas of Gilgit and Baltistan were bundled in with Kashmir and demarcated as disputed territory under U.N. resolutions passed after Pakistan and India fought the first of their three wars in 1948.

Bordering China on one side and the mainly Buddhist Indian region of Ladakh on the other, Pakistan's sparsely populated Northern Areas are known to mountaineers as the home of many of the world's highest peaks.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan and India fought a brief but intense border conflict in the Kargil sector of this region in 1999.

Although Pakistan has held the northern territories since the first war with India, their status was hitherto undefined as Pakistan had not wanted to compromise its case in the broader dispute over Kashmir.

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