What is Gilgit Agency?
[[Image:Gilgit Agency map.gif|thumb|Gilgit Agency]] '''Gilgit Agency''' ({{lang-ur|گلگت آگنکے}}) was the name of most of the area of northern Kashmir which formed a de facto dependency of [[Pakistan]] from 1947 to 1970, which was then merged into [[Northern Areas]]. The Agency was administered directly from [[Islamabad]] separately from the neighbouring state of [[Azad Jammu and Kashmir]] and the princely states of [[Hunza-Nagar District]]. The area of the Agency comprised the traditional region of Gilgit. The Agency also bordered the Sinkiang region of [[China]] to the northeast, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir to the south, Baltistan to east, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west. Both India and Pakistan recognise the regions of [[Gilgit]] and [[Baltistan]] as disputed and technically part of the divided State of Jammu & Kashmir. The chief towns of the Agency were Gilgit and Skardu with the small town of Ghyari also holding significance for Shia Muslims as the site of a mosque built by Sayyid Ali Hamadani, a fourteenth century [[Persian people|Persian]] who brought [[Islam]] to the region {{Administrative divisions of Azad Kashmir}} {{geo-stub}} [[Category:Gilgit-Baltistan]] [[Category:Divisions of Jammu and Kashmir| ]]