Saudi knocks Gilgit-Baltistan, PoK off Pakistan map: Activist calls its Diwali gift to India

New Delhi, Oct 29: An activist from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) has said that Saudi Arabia has removed PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan from Pakistan's map.

The activist, Amjad Ayub also tweeted an image captioned, 'Saudi Arabia's Diwali gift to India-removes Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir from Pakistan's map.'

Media reports said that Saudi Arabia released a 20 Riyal banknote to commemorate its presidency of organising the G-20 summit on November 21-22. It was also reported that the world map displayed on the banknote does not Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir as part of Kashmir.

Further, it was also said that this is a step taken by Saudi Arabia to disgrace Pakistan. It may be noted here that Pakistan is adapting a new block headed by Turkey.

Turkey was Pakistan's lone supporter at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary which had last week kept Islamabad in the grey list.

Turkey had tried everything possible to ensure that Pakistan is let off. It even suggested a special visit to Islamabad to make an onsite assessments of Pakistan's implementation of measures to curb terror funding. It was seen more as an effort to plug holes in the legal framework to curb terror funding.

The suggestion was aimed at letting Pakistan off and placing it on the white list. However the same was not backed by China and Malaysia. The hard push to back Pakistan is a clear attempt that Turkey is making to emerge as the new radical Islamic axis and upstage Saudi Arabia.