The Buddhist enclave of Ladakh cheered India's move to hive it off from Jam...
MUMBAI, India - The Buddhist enclave of Ladakh cheered India’s move to hive it off from Jammu and Kashmir state, a change that could spur tourism and help New Delhi counter China’s influence in the contested western Himalayas.
Ladakh is an arid, mountainous area of around 59,146 square kilometers , much of it uninhabitable, that only has 274,000 residents. The rest of Jammu and Kashmir is roughly 163,090 square kilometers with a population of some 12.2 million. In a statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China contests the inclusion of what it regards as its territory on the Indian side of the western section of the China-India border.
“India does not comment on the internal affairs of other countries and similarly expects other countries to do likewise,” said Kumar, without directly mentioning China. “We are very happy that we are separated from Kashmir. Now we can be the owners of our own destiny,” Tsering Samphel, a veteran politician from the Congress party in Ladakh, said on Tuesday. He added the area felt dwarfed by Jammu and Kashmir - which is a majority Muslim area - and that the regions had little in common culturally.
However, while Ladakh will become a Union Territory, it will not have its own legislature - a sore point for some locals.
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