Social media was abuzz today and the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) trending as screenshots of its weather predictions for Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad—the areas in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir—went viral.

However, the IMD has insisted that it has been issuing weather bulletin for these regions as they are parts of India and now the regional meteorological centre will regularly provide forecast for these cities.

"IMD has been issuing weather bulletin for the entire Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh area. We are mentioning Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad in the bulletin as they are the parts of India," said IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra.

For a long time, IMD has been issuing severe weather forecasts for Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, etc. "We were mentioning this information in our national bulletin. For the past two days, we have started mentioning this information in our regional bulletin," he said.

India has always maintained that these parts have been illegally occupied by Pakistan.

As reported by IN a few days ago (<a href="https://indianarrative.com/world/india-tells-pakistan-to-immediately-vacate-all-areas-under-illegal-occupation-1657.html">https://indianarrative.com/world/india-tells-pakistan-to-immediately-vacate-all-areas-under-illegal-occupation-1657.html</a>), the Indian government had conveyed its strong protest on Pakistan Supreme Court’s order of giving a green signal to conduct general elections in the “so-caled Gilgit-Baltistan”, an integral part of India.

“India completely rejects such actions and continued attempts to bring material changes in Pakistan occupied areas of the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said while demarching a senior Pakistan diplomat and telling the Imran Khan-led government to "immediately vacate" all areas under its illegal occupation..