Irrespective of an extant territorial claim, PoK comprising the so-called ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’ (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan, has consistently remained quite low in the list of India’s strategic priorities. Part of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, PoK has for decades neither received adequate attention in terms of the region’s stakes in the broader Kashmir issue nor has it figured prominently in India’s policy pronouncements.
