Geneva [Switzerland], October 1 (ANI): With Pakistan announcing its arbitrary plan to annex Gilgit Baltistan, several activists have raised objection against the move and accused Islamabad of collaborating with China to bring carved up the Pakistan occupied region as its fifth province.

Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza, a political activist from Pakistan occupied Kashmir, is one among such activists who raised the issue during the 45th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

He said, "Pakistan is attempting to illegally make Gilgit Baltistan her fifth province. On October 31, 1947, Pakistan instigated a coup d'etat in Gilgit agency with the collaboration of British officers of Gilgit scouts and occupied Gilgit Agency. By attacking the state of Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit Agency, Pakistan has committed a war of aggression, crime against peace and crime against humanity, all I wish tend to amount to war crimes".

The European Foundation for South Asian Studies had reported that the decision could be seen as Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's "belated response" to India's moves to scrap Articles 370 and 35A. It said that decision to usurp Gilgit Baltistan could only have been made in Rawalpindi, not in Islamabad.

"More importantly, however, it is the constant Chinese pressure on the military establishment to ensure a proper legal cover under Pakistan's legal jurisdiction for its investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which enters Pakistan from China through Gilgit Baltistan, that has forced the establishment to act," the European think tank argued.

Recently, The Express Tribune quoted Minister Ali Amin Gandapur as saying that the government has decided to elevate Gilgit-Baltistan to the status of a full-fledged province.

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would soon visit the region and make a formal announcement in this regard.

In response to Pakistan's decision to usurp Gilgit Baltistan, India had responded strongly saying that "any action by Pakistan to alter the status of the militarily occupied so-called 'Gilgit-Baltistan' has no legal basis whatsoever and is totally void ab-initio. Our position has always been clear and consistent. The entire territories of the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been and are an integral part of India and would remain so. Pakistan has no locus standi to comment on India's internal matters". (ANI)