India making IoK federal territory today

NEW DELHI: India’s government will formally break up Jammu and Kashmir State into two federal territories on Thursday, as part of a sweeping move to tighten its grip over the restive region that is at the heart of more than 70 years of hostility with Pakistan, reports foreign media.

Under the new arrangement, Jammu and Kashmir will be clubbed as one union territory with some 12.2 million people and Ladakh, with a population of less than 300,000, spun off into another, both ruled directly by Delhi.

Ladakh will be separate entirely. Post-separation, Jammu and Kashmir will have five representatives in India’s lower house, while Ladakh will send one representative to the parliament in New Delhi.