Ladakh LG dismisses China’s Shaksgam valley claim: ‘Entire PoK is ours’

Ladakh Lieutenant Governor Kavinder Gupta

• Ladakh L-G Gupta denies China's claim on Shaksgam valley, affirms PoK is India's.
• India deems China-Pakistan Shaksgam valley pact illegal and invalid
• China insists its claim is justified, citing a 1960s agreement with Pakistan

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Ladakh Lieutenant Governor Kavinder Gupta on Tuesday strongly refuted China’s claim over the Shaksgam valley, asserting that the entire region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) belongs to India and warning that no expansionist move would be tolerated.

“The whole of (Pakistan-occupied) Kashmir is ours. We do not know what Pakistan has traded with China. China should understand that nothing will be achieved through its expansionist policy. India is capable. It is not the India of 1962, it is the India of 2026. Any such attempts will be foiled. The Ministry of External Affairs is taking cognisance of it,” he told reporters in Jammu.

Responding to a query on China’s infrastructure build-up in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Shaksgam Valley, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “Shaksgam Valley is Indian territory. We have never recognised the so-called China-Pakistan boundary agreement that happened in 1963. We have consistently maintained that the agreement is illegal and invalid.”

However, a Chinese government spokesperson reiterated Beijing’s claim over the territory, citing a “boundary agreement” signed with Pakistan in the 1960s and asserting that it is “fully justified for China to conduct infrastructure construction on its own territory.”

On Tuesday, Ladakh L-G Gupta said that no such act would be tolerated and China must realise India today is far stronger than it was in the past. He added that China had earlier laid claims on parts of Arunachal Pradesh as well.

Taking a swipe at Pakistan, the lieutenant governor alleged that the neighbouring country had failed its own people and was indulging in questionable dealings. “Pakistan is a state kept on sale. It has no concern for its sovereignty or its own people. Voices are being raised in Balochistan, Sindh and Karachi, and atrocities are being committed by the Pakistan Army there. Those areas are virtually being run by the Army,” Gupta said.