In the latest instalment of a long-drawn border war, India and Pakistan are thundering at each other through weather bulletins. Last week t...
In the latest instalment of a long-drawn border war, India and Pakistan are thundering at each other through weather bulletins. Last week the Indian Meteorological Department subtly renamed the Jammu and Kashmir subdivision as the Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad subdivision. Temperatures for all regions were broadcast on All India Radio and Doordarshan.
While Muzaffarabad is a town in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan is the left tip of the crown-shaped territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Not to be outdone, Radio Pakistan started reading out weather updates for “Indian-occupied-Jammu and Kashmir”. In most parts of the region, “partly cloudy weather is expected with chances of rain,” said the forecast, in what seemed to be darkly metaphorical language.
For Ladakh, it bent the laws of nature. The maximum temperature recorded in the mountainous desert region was -4 degrees Centigrade and the minimum -1 degrees Centigrade, the radio channel initially reported.
When it comes to Jammu and Kashmir, the sky’s the limit, to borrow former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao’s words. Both India and Pakistan, however, are more interested in what lies beneath the skies.
Skies over Gilgit-Baltistan
For now, the centre of attention is Gilgit-Baltistan, a high-altitude region about five times the size of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir but sparsely populated. India’s renewed interest in the region comes after...
