Put Kashmiris first, says Crisis Group
Any dialogue between India and Pakistan aimed at a solution to the decades-old Kashmir problem will fail if the two rivals do not first include people living on both sides of Line of Control (LoC) that divides the region, the International Crisis Group says.
New Delhi and Islamabad appeared willing to allow more interaction across the LoC but failed to engage Kashmiris in the process, the Crisis Group said in a report titled, “Steps Towards Peace: Putting Kashmiris First.”
The latest briefing from the Crisis Group identifies the key political, social and economic needs of Kashmiris that should be addressed on both sides of the divided state.
Here is the complete report.
Samina Ahmed, Crisis Group’s South Asia Project Director says the atmosphere of hostility is undermining the progress that had been made in softening the border that also divides the Kashmiri families.
Relations between the south Asian neighbours went into a freeze the Mumbai attacks killed 166 people.
“Since the Mumbai attacks by Pakistan-based militants in November 2008, tensions between the two neighbours have eclipsed Kashmiri hopes for political liberalisation and economic opportunity,” Samina adds.
In Kashmir, nearly half favour independence
Nearly half of the people living in the Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir want their disputed and divided state to become an independent country, according to a poll published by think tank Chatham House.
London-based Chatham House says the poll is the first to be conducted on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC), a military control line that has separated Indian and Pakistani controlled Kashmir since the U.N.-brokered ceasefire between two rivals in 1949.
The poll has produced startling results. On average 44 percent of people in Pakistani-administered Kashmir favoured independence, compared with 43 percent in Indian Kashmir.
But in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, which is at the centre of the two-decades-old anti-India insurgency, between 75 percent and 95 percent support freedom both from India and Pakistan.
The scenic Himalayan region, which is divided between three nuclear-armed neighbours India, Pakistan and China, comprises of three regions — Buddhist-dominated Ladakh, Hindu-dominated Jammu and Muslim-majority Kashmir valley.
Twenty one percent of the population said they would vote for the whole of Kashmir to join India, and only 15 percent said they would vote for it to join Pakistan.
At least 80 percent of Kashmiris on both sides of LoC say that the decades-old dispute is very important to them personally.
@daraindia…how many crimes we prove…ask cbi they proved that your army brutally kiled five innocents in fake encounter in south kashmir and passed them off as militants who killed 35 sikhs. ask military court how many they have proved so far. be realistic and admit that you army os tyrant.
Will India’s Kashmir talks offer break fresh ground?
New Delhi said this week it will adopt “quiet diplomacy” with every section of political opinion to find a solution to the problems in India-ruled Kashmir about four years after it opened a dialogue with separatist groups there.
The response to the announcement is on expected lines — the moderates welcoming it and pro-Pakistan hardliners reminding any effort at peace without involving Islamabad would be futile.
New Delhi has not yet made a formal offer for talks. But the timing of the development appears to be significant.
Violence is at a low in Kashmir, elections there were largely successful and last year’s angry public protests against Indian rule have now subsided.
On the other hand, the security situation is at its worst in Pakistan and the war in Afghanistan appears to be in a decisive phase.
There is also growing realisation in Washington about the impact of the India-Pakistan rivalry on the Afghan war as pointed out in this Reuters analysis.
Pakistan has long demanded that resolution of the Kashmir dispute be made part of any effort to stabilise South Asia, a move strongly resisted by India.
will kashmir agree to a further division- kashmir A made up of muslim pro-pak people; and kashmir B made up of non-muslim kashmiris? if not, then how can they seek a division from india? will PoK also be returned to kashmir A? since the biggest advocate of kashmiri independence is itself guilty of gobbling up a completely independent country – tibet! how safe will kashmir A&B be? one day, nepal will be like tibet of today: no boundaries except the one it shares with india. our intelligent neighbours have realised that they don’t have to launch any attacks on us to destroy us, we are cumbling from within. there is no indian alive today – only assamese, bengalis, biharis, marathis, UPites, tamil, oriya, gujerati, andhras, kannad, malyali, himachali, rajasthani, kashmiri, goanese, madhyapradeshi, gorkha, punjabi, haryanvi, manipuri, mizo, tripuri, naga. will the indian stand up and show his face? since when has it become mandatory for people to become one on the basis of language alone? every state in the union enjoys great autonomy, what more do you want? united we stand, divided we fall.
Lately all types of people have started stirring the curry in Kashmir. People who have perhaps not even known the valley beyond the newspapers have been allowed to take centre-stage. Take for example the tenuous and callous edict of Arun Datti Roy, who has perhaps developed some kind of an affinity with the radical elements during her frequent rendezvous with them. Her proclamation might have won her the hearts of her beloved subversive kin in the valley and their mentors across the border but our hearts bleed to hear such rhetoric. The indigenous people like us, who have grown up in the lap of the vale and might have suffered the ignominy to be thrown out of our homeland, would not at all assimilate such sacrilege.
Ms Roy might be a credible writer but ostensibly she is a pathetic reader. Perhaps she has not cared to read and understand the backdrop, the cause and the purpose of the strife in the valley. It is ironical to hear about Kashmir and its tribulations from someone who is not at all qualified to talk about the subject. As a matter of fact, these days it has become fashionable for every dog on the street to open its mouth and vomit whatever it can chuck on Kashmir to gain cheap publicity, without caring about the sentiments of the people who have given blood to safeguard its sanctity.
It is worth reminding Ms Roy that not long ago, Kashmir was not what it is today. We have lived in a Kashmir which was an example of amity, serenity and tranquility. We fondly remember the times when Miwaiz Maulvi Farooq the slain father of Huriyat functionary Mirwaiz Omar Farooq used to travel to idgah for offering Idd prayers and on his return we, the Hindus living in his close neighborhood used to line up on the road side to wish him IDD MUBARAK and he used to return the greetings gratefully. Although Maulvi Farooq was a staunch crusader of azadi, but never did he transverse the path of secession in the right spirit due to lack of support from the people. The people were more concerned about earning their living rather than bother about azadi.
On the other hand the life of politicians across the border in Pakistan depended solely on the passion they ignited on Kashmir. They used every possible medium – Pakistan Television, Radio Pakistan & Azad Kashmir Radio, Tiralkand & Muzaraffabad and to some extend the local vernacular press to inculcate the seeds of azadi in Kashmiries. In April 1988, it took a historical maneuver by the very cunning General Zia-ul-Haq, the then military dictator of Pakistan, who devised a very realistic and viable plan to create instability and chaos in Kashmir. His doctrine named “OPERATION TOPAC” envisaged everything that Kashmir is passing through today. The situation created by Soviet occupation of Afghanistan ushered a God created opportunity for Zia to facilitate the fulfillment of his dream. What has happened to Kashmir would have never taken place without the intervention and connivance of Pakistan. If tomorrow Ms Roy’s dreams are realized and an independent Kashmir is formed, she should thank the genius of Gen Zia for sowing the seeds of secessionism in the Kashmiries.
We the Kashmiri Hindus, have suffered the most through the years of bloodbath and anarchy. Yet we would not dare to think of separating Kashmir from our motherland – India. Had we been having the kind of blood that is running through Ms Roy, we would have very easily compromised our jingoism and perhaps would have not been at the receiving end of misery and hardship that has become part of our lives today.
Would someone amongst us standup and make people like Ms Roy understand that every word spoken about Kashmir has got multifarious repercussions for the stakeholders and every word they speak has a bearing on the peace process that may be going on overtly or covertly in Delhi, Srinagar or Islamabad.