The India Meteorological Department’s Regional Meteorological Centre has started including cities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in its forecasts, a departure from its previous format, officials said on Thursday.

The IMD has started including Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad, which are parts of PoK, under the Jammu and Kashmir meteorological sub-division since May 5, said Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the Regional Meteorological Department that gives forecast for the northwest meteorological division of the IMD.

IMD Director-General M. Mohapatra said it had been mentioning areas under PoK under its daily weather bulletin ever since the State was bifurcated into Union Territories in August last year.

The development assumes significance as India has maintained that the area under PoK belongs to India. The inclusion of Muzaffarabad and Gilgit-Baltistan comes amid Pakistan’s Supreme Court allowing elections in Gilgit-Baltistan this week, to which India had strongly reacted.

Subscribe to The Hindu digital to get unlimited access to Today's paper

Already have an account ? Sign in

Find mobile-friendly version of articles from the day's newspaper in one easy-to-read list.

Enjoy reading as many articles as you wish without any limitations.

A select list of articles that match your interests and tastes.

Move smoothly between articles as our pages load instantly.

A one-stop-shop for seeing the latest updates, and managing your preferences.

We brief you on the latest and most important developments, three times a day.

*Our Digital Subscription plans do not currently include the e-paper ,crossword, iPhone, iPad mobile applications and print. Our plans enhance your reading experience.

To continue enjoying The Hindu, You can turn off your ad blocker or Subscribe to The Hindu.

Sign up for a 30 day free trial.