Friday, May 21, 2010

Northern Areas (Gilgit-Baltistan)

The North-Western areas of Kashmir known as Northern Areas is the political entity within the Pakistani controlled part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It borders pakistan's Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province to the west, Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor to the north, China to the north-West,Pakistani-Administered state of Azad jammu and Kashmir (AZK).and the Indian administered state Jammu and Kashmir to the south east.In 1970, it became the single administrative unit under t6he name Northern Areas. it has an area of 72,971 km. sq.
There are more than 20,000 pieces of rock art and petroglyphs all along the Karakoram Highways in Gilgit-Baltistan, concentrated at ten major cites  between Hunza and Shatial.
Before the independence of Pakistan and India in 1947,Maharaja Hari Singh extended his rule to Gilgit and Baltistan.After the partition, Jammu and Kashmir, in its entirety,The Pakistani parts of Kashmir to the north and west of the ceasefire line  established at the end of the Indo-Pakistani War,1947,were divided Jammu and Kashmir into three parts, two of which were controlled by Pakishtan and the other belonged to India Union.