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India stops road project in Kashmir after China objects

AFP

Map of Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed territory in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, now administered by India, Pakistan, and China. India claims the entire former princely state and presently administers the Kashmir valley, Siachen Glacier, Jammu, and Ladakh. Pakistan controls Azad Kashmir and the northern areas of Gilgit and Baltistan. Both nations refuse to recognise the other’s claim to ownership.Source unknown

Work on a mountainous road in Indian-controlled Kashmir near the border with China has been stopped after objections from the Chinese army, an official and a report said Monday.

“The road was being built for the locals following their persistent demands,” a government official from Leh, the capital of the area of Ladakh where the road was being built, told AFP.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the work had stopped about three months ago.

“We had already constructed four kilometres (2.5 miles) of road when the Chinese came and asked to stop the work,” the state chief minister, Omar Abdullah, was quoted by Indian Express newspaper as saying on Monday.

“We have already informed the government of India about it,” he said.

Kashmir is divided mainly between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. China holds a small area of the scenic Himalayan region.

The eight-kilometre road was being built under a government rural employment scheme in the Demchok area of the Buddhist-dominated Ladakah area near the Line of Control (LOC) — a demarcation that divides Indian Kashmir and the part held by China.

The road adds to a list of issues that have soured Sino-Indian relations in recent months, including a Chinese embassy policy of issuing different visas to Indians and residents of Indian Kashmir.

A visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to another disputed area in northeastern India caused angry objections from Beijing.

Last month, China also offered financial help to Pakistan to build a multi-billion-dollar dam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which led to complaints from New Delhi.

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