Dr Senge Sering, a prominent leader of the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), has hailed the scrapping of Article 370, in a series of tweets and re-tweets.

I extend heartiest congratulations to the Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra @narendramodi ji and the Home Minister Shri @AmitShah Ji for granting #unionterritory status to our beloved #Ladakh.

May the people of Ladakh prosper

May India prosper

Jai Hind — #SengeSering@SengeHSering) August 5, 2019

Sering said in another tweet that the Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, who is ought to create a “new Pakistan”, could “learn something from Amit Shahji”. Amit Shah, Sering said, has show how to create “new Kashmir” and “new Ladakh”.

He has also tweeted a stinging reaction to the former Chief Minister of J&K, Mehbooba Mufti, who tweeted that the abrogation of the Article 370 “reduces India to an occupation force in J&K”.

He said, “When people living in India take online courses from Pakistan's Allama Iqbal Open University, then they talk like this.”

Earlier, Pakistani Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi had tweeted that “Pakistan condemns and rejects announcements made today by Indian government regarding Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir.” In response, Sering said, “You used (the) term ‘announcement’ since in Pakistan, you make random ad-hoc announcements on Gilgit-Baltistan with no constitutional basis and therefore never implemented. India is doing permanent constitutional amendment since India has legal link with J&K. Wish you knew (the) difference.”

During a visit to Chennai a few months ago, Sering told BusinessLine that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan were ill-treated in Pakistan. He said that their natural resources were being given away to the Chinese with no benefits to the local people, either in terms of royalty or employment opportunities.

Sering, who currently lives in the United States (US)would not go to his country because he would be arrested and not be permitted to leave the land again. He said that his people would also want the kind of development that India was doing through the Hill Councils in Ladakh.

Christine Fair

Dr Christine Fair, a professor at Georgetown University, USA, who is an expert on Pakistan and can speak Urdu and Punjabi, said that India scrapping Article 370 was “a proper thappar (slap) to the Trump-Khan bromance.” In a series of tweets supporting the Indian move, Dr Fair, who has explicitly said that she is not a fan of the BJP government, has stressed that while the motivations behind the move (implying anti-muslim) were wrong, the scrapping of the Art. 370 itself was good for the people of Kashmir.