Huge protests were held in Gilgit-Baltistan area on Thursday to protest against the rigged Assembly election. People were seen thronging the streets of the area and accusing Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of winning maximum number of seats by rigging the recently held polls.

Khan’s PTI won a majority of the 23 Assembly seats in Gilgit-Baltistan.

It may be noted that the Indian government has repeatedly slammed Pakistan for holding elections in Gilgit-Baltistan, as India considers the area as an integral part of it since 1947. New Delhi has maintained that Islamabad’s any action to alter the status of the militarily-occupied region has no legal basis.

Gilgit-Baltistan election 2020 was held on 23 seats of the third legislative assembly on November 15 amidst tight security. The Pakistan government had deployed over 15,000 security personnel from Gilgit-Baltistan, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan at the polling stations.