Pakistan on Tuesday went the Nepal route, releasing a new political map and stating that the entirety of Jammu and Kashmir was a part of the it. The new map was unveiled by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
An image of the same was also posted on the Prime Minister's official Twitter handle and shows Jammu and Kashmir as part of the Pakistani territory that is "illegally occupied by India".
While the earlier map has had a relatively thin sliver of land marked as "azad Jammu and Kashmir", the new map takes within its borders the whole of Jammu and Kashmir.
As per a tweet by India Today editor Geeta Mohan, Khan calls this the "first step".
"We don't believe in military solutions we believe in political solutions," Khan can be seen stating in the clip.
He says that the country would also keep reminding the UN of its "unfulfilled promise". Many people, he added, were sacrificing their lives in Kashmir to attain freedom, expressing hope that "we will win one day".
"We will keep trying ..until I'm alive I'll keep trying," he adds.
The timing of Pakistan's announcement coincides with the abrogration of Article 370. Tomorrow, August 5 will mark one year since the Indian Government revoked the special status granted to the northern state. Soon after, the area underwent an administrative change too, becoming two separate union territories of 'Ladakh' and 'Jammu and Kashmir'.
Incidentally a similar issue had cropped up with Nepal recently, with the neighbouring country passing a constitutional amendment to adopt a new political map which includes areas that India calls its own. The new map lays claim over the strategically key areas of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura along the border with India.
If you're curious about the refercence in our headline, Khan had once stated that that Japan and Germany shared a border. For the geographically challenged among us, the two nations are not neighbours, what with them being on different continents with several countries between them. Germany and Japan, he can be heard saying, created joint industries on their border region after the second World War.
What makes it worse however is that the comment was made during an official address in Iran.
