Syeda Mazhar
The hostile nature of Indo-Pak relations has been subject to a number of underlying factors which have been rooted in history and have led to major conflicts between the two neighbors. The dispute over Kashmir has been immensely critical in determining the relationship between the two nations from the onset as it offered a predominant geo-political advantage to the country it would accede to and also the control over the fresh water supplies. The enormity of the Kashmir problem can be gauged by the need of an intervention by the UN when the two nations were at war in October 1948, just a year after partition. The UN declared a ceasefire and demanding a free and impartial plebiscite to decide the fate of Kashmir. The fate that till date remains undecided.
In another attempt to wrest the disputed region Pakistan launched Operation Gibraltar in the summer of 1965. Once again the war was largely inconclusive because in the end both countries had to cede any territory they had captured and effectively the two countries had reached a stalemate. The international community in collaboration with the respective governments made several proposals and suggestions on how to resolve the Kashmir issue. The problem still remains unsettled and was aggravated by the Kargil War and reported incidences of “cross border terrorism” across Kashmir.
Throughout the history, Pakistan was wrongly accused of funding terrorist activists in Kashmir and India to force India to give in and allow Pakistan to gain back the control of the dispute territory of Kashmir. In 2008 the Mumbai bombings struck a defining blow to any bilateral agreement between the two countries. Whether the bombing was orchestrated by the Indian government itself is still to be determined. However, the incident was used by India to legitimize its claim of Pakistan harboring militant groups, especially in Kashmir, to carry out terrorist activities. The Mumbai bombings had robbed Pakistan with any leverage it held over negotiations with India as was intended.
Kashmir, over the years, has been the subject of various investigations and studies in political literature. Despite the collaboration of the International community and the repeated efforts by UN and bilateral talks were held to assist the two states into reaching a solution there has been little to none hope in reaching a consensus. The present situation of Kashmir is getting worse with dozens of casualties every day. Not only that, India has been waging natural warfare onto the Kashmiris by flooding the area in monsoon season and blocking all water during dry season. Apart from bullets, rapes, bombing, grenades, kidnappings and numerous killings, avalanches, floods, droughts are also being manipulated to increase the already increasing death toll.
The Kashmiris want their right of self determination while Pakistan has been supporting the Kashmir Case since 1948 on all forums of the world. The long resisted frustration has turned the Kashmiris to violence at times; however, primarily they remained a peace loving nation. Moreover at times, incidents of kidnapping or killing of Muslims and even Kashmiri Hindus is being reported.
The Kashmir issue has been said to be resolved by diplomatic bilateral talks. Demilitarization of the disputed territory is essential. There is another option to make Kashmir an arms free trading zone. It can even be freed and made and independent republic but the wishes of the people of Kashmir must bear due weight age.
Given the human and economic costs caused by the Kashmir dispute over the last 67 years mean that neither nation will be willing to sacrifice its claim over the region. Unfortunately, neither India nor Pakistan are unwilling to give up any part of Kashmir as they consider it a lawful part of their land. It must be realized that the two nations are going nowhere with the Kashmir issue at the moment.
New Delhi has been having a hot and cold attitude towards addressing the issue mostly to falsely impressionate its keenness to solve the Kashmir Issue fairly. India must be made to understand by the international powers that it cannot be secure without settling longstanding disputes with its neighbors. If it wishes to grow as a regional or global power, it has no recourse but to improve relations with its next door nations. Its biggest problem is going to be access to energy. The cheapest energy as the engine of growth can only come through Pakistan, a simple fact of geography.
For the past two decades India has been notoriously avoiding holding bilateral talks to discuss Kashmir issue yet at every International forum they have made it a point to superficially touch upon the topic to pacify the International community. The policy of ‘wait and watch’ can only be the keyword to the Indian policy on Kashmir, let us see when Pakistan realizes the futility of continually trying to diplomatically reach a solution. India’s cold attitude towards its neighbor and its cold blooded revolt against Pakistan in the process of which, only innocent people are jailed, kidnapped and hacked to death by the Indian Armed Forces has only been causing more Kashmiris into losing hope and blood every day.
