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India Gazette
26-05-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
Gilgit-Baltistan faces environmental and political crisis, says Dr Amjad Mirza on Radio Himalaya News
London [UK], May 26 (ANI): Political activist from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza, has raised alarm over the deteriorating environmental conditions and political developments in Gilgit-Baltistan in his latest episode on Radio Himalaya News, Kashmir News Exclusive. Speaking on the urgent issue of melting glaciers in Gilgit-Baltistan, Dr Mirza stated that unchecked deforestation, unregulated tourism, lack of waste management, and rising plastic pollution are accelerating glacial melt in the region. He criticised the absence of a national glacier monitoring policy and pointed out that neither Pakistan nor Gilgit-Baltistan possesses the modern technology necessary to manage glacial water, recycle waste, or monitor changes via satellite. 'India is the only country in South Asia with the capability to address these challenges effectively,' Dr Mirza said, arguing that Gilgit-Baltistan should be integrated with Ladakh under the Indian Union as per the Instrument of Accession signed on October 26, 1947. He also criticised the recently passed Land Reforms Bill 2025 in Gilgit-Baltistan, which, he said, further strengthens bureaucratic control while undermining the rights of local people. The bill, currently awaiting the Governor's assent, has triggered widespread public dissent. Civil society organisations, including the Public Action Committee led by Ahsan Ali Advocate and the Anjuman-e-Imamia Association, have opposed the bill, demanding its return to the Assembly for revisions. Several activists have been jailed for protesting the legislation, which is being described as a move to legalise land grabs. Dr Mirza warned of a potential civil disobedience movement if the demands of the people are not met. 'Gilgit-Baltistan may be ignored by the world, but not by Radio Himalaya News,' he concluded. Earlier on April 12, Mirza issued a strong statement supporting India's recent counter-terrorism offensive -- Operation Sindoor -- targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and its occupied territories. Speaking to ANI, Mirza warned that the threat of terrorism from PoJK is far from over. He asserted that the terrorist camps in PoJK have not been dismantled but only relocated after India identified their locations. 'The terrorists have been moved from places like Muzaffarabad, Leepa Valley, and other known sites. These camps are very much active -- just shifted, not shut,' he said. He accused Pakistan of continuously exploiting PoJK -- which he emphasised as Indian territory -- to wage proxy war against India. 'Pakistan will keep using PoJK and Gilgit-Baltistan against India until these areas are reintegrated into the Indian Union,' he stated. (ANI)
Deccan Herald
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Deccan Herald
Muzaffarabad: The house that burned, the nation that endured
Partition divided India in 1947, but the Kashmir issue was not a direct result of Partition. It arose from the indecision of the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir in signing the Instrument of Accession with India.
New Indian Express
17-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Kennedy to Trump: America's tightrope act on Kashmir, then and now
U.S. President Donald Trump's recent repeated reiteration of his offer to mediate between India and Pakistan has reignited a familiar and uncomfortable diplomatic discourse. His latest comments raise difficult questions about the international community's role in a conflict shaped by colonial legacies, nationalism, and decades of insurgency cum terrorism. Going by President Trump's own mercurial reputation and in an effort to ring-fence the growing India–U.S. strategic partnership, the Indian establishment has generally refrained from directly challenging him. As expected, Trump's remarks were warmly received in Islamabad and curtly dismissed in New Delhi, each reaction shaped by entrenched strategic postures and historical interpretations. India's response to Trump's offer was unequivocal. Reiterating its longstanding position, the Ministry of External Affairs stated that there was 'no scope for any third-party mediation.' New Delhi's traditional line remains that the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh in 1947 rendered Jammu and Kashmir an integral part of India. While India did approach the United Nations in 1948, it did so with the limited purpose of seeking Pakistan's military withdrawal from territories it had occupied; not to invite external mediation on Kashmir's sovereignty. Indian skepticism of American involvement is rooted in historical experience. In the 1990s, comments by U.S. officials such as Robin Raphel, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian affairs, caused significant unease in New Delhi, and it took time to repair trust. Historically, the United States began formulating an independent role on Jammu and Kashmir in the early 1950s, initially in deference to the United Kingdom. Together, the two nations co-sponsored several UN resolutions, but their strategic interests increasingly diverged over time. During the Cold War, U.S. policy was shaped more by the need to contain communism than by any principled stance on Kashmir. A practical reading of the U.S. engagement, however, reveals a more nuanced reality. Despite its public posture of rejecting third-party involvement, India has, on occasion, quietly leveraged U.S. influence when it served its interests in managing relations with Pakistan. Post-9/11, the U.S. focus shifted toward transnational terrorism, particularly when it intersected with extremist groups based in Pakistan with links to Jammu and Kashmir. The fact is that India has capitalized on direct or indirect U.S. involvement when it has aligned with its strategic interests in the context of India-Pakistan relations. Even during past peace overtures such as the backchannel talks in the early 2000s between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf India ensured that the dialogue remained strictly bilateral, leaving no room for third-party intervention. However, observers familiar with the trajectory of developments since the 1990s recognize that some of the ideas explored during these backchannel engagements, particularly during the Vajpayee-Musharraf and later Manmohan-Musharraf phases, drew inspiration from a broader international discourse on Kashmir. While official channels maintained a posture of strategic autonomy, certain proposals in circulation among U.S.-based policy circles and international think tanks did feed into the conceptual backdrop of bilateral diplomacy. Themes such as demilitarization, people-to-people contact, and cross-border trade though not adopted wholesale from any single external source found resonance in initiatives like the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service and the opening of cross-LoC trade. These reflected how Track II and unofficial exchanges subtly informed formal negotiations, even when governments publicly distanced themselves from external formulations. President Trump's offer also fails to account for the deep historical currents that have shaped, constrained, and ultimately limited American involvement in Kashmir. In this regard, there is no better guide than the late American diplomat Howard B. Schaffer, whose book The Limits of Influence: America's Role in Kashmir provides a granular, sobering account of Washington's past efforts in the region. According to Schaffer, the most proactive phase of American diplomacy on Kashmir unfolded during President John F. Kennedy's administration. Convinced that a stable South Asia was essential for building a Cold War coalition against communist expansion, the Kennedy White House launched an ambitious, though ultimately futile, effort to broker peace between India and Pakistan. Central to this initiative was the dispatch of W. Averell Harriman, a senior State Department official, to the subcontinent in the wake of the 1962 Sino-Indian war. India, having suffered a humiliating military defeat at China's hands, found itself at a moment of unusual diplomatic vulnerability. Harriman's mission, backed by personal letters from Kennedy to both Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistani President Ayub Khan, sought to exploit this rare alignment to lay the groundwork for direct bilateral negotiations.
New Indian Express
11-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Why Kashmir must be Unified and Whole
A border is a line drawn by politics and held in place by rote. Few are as blood-soaked and brittle as the one that runs down the spine of Kashmir, cleaving a valley into two, and history into a wound. Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is not just territory. It is the unfinished sentence of 1947, the jagged consequence of deceit, delay, and the tragic timidity of post-colonial diplomacy. Pakistan has no moral or historical claim to PoK. It is stolen land, seized in the fog of Partition through the deployment of tribal militias backed by Pakistan, in direct violation of the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh in October 1947: an instrument recognised by India, the British Crown, and even the United Nations. In that moment, Kashmir legally became a part of India. We must step into the past, into the chaotic cartography of Mountbatten's Radcliffe Line, which split not just the subcontinent but its conscience. The two-nation theory, the flawed seed from which the Partition bloomed, demanded division by religious majority. Kashmir was never just a demographic puzzle. It was, and remains, a civilisational keystone, historically connected more to the plains of Punjab and the bygone empires of Delhi than to the tribal badlands of Pakistan's northwest.
Telegraph
29-04-2025
- Telegraph
This is yet another tragedy for Kashmir, the troubled region with so much to offer
It is a bittersweet reality that Kashmir, perhaps the finest region on the Indian subcontinent, has once again been struck by tragedy. Tucked away in the far north, Kashmir's natural splendour is almost mythic in its beauty – a place where orchards stretch across terraced hillsides, alpine meadows are cradled by the mighty Himalayas, and houseboats sway gently upon mirror-like lakes. And yet, despite its serene landscapes, the region has long been marked by periods of conflict and hardship, with the recent terror attack in Pahalgam – one of the most visited towns in Kashmir – on April 22, adding another chapter to its turbulent history. Kashmir's modern history is rooted in the partition of British India in 1947. After India gained independence, Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, acceded to India on October 26, 1947. This decision came in response to a tribal invasion supported by Pakistan, which prompted Maharaja to seek Indian military assistance. He signed the Instrument of Accession, a legal document, to formally join the Dominion of India. War between India and Pakistan followed, eventually leading to the establishment of an UN-brokered ceasefire line – later renamed the 'Line of Control' after the 1972 Simla Agreement – which became a de facto border. Despite this, tensions have persisted, and insurgencies and shifting political winds have since shaped the region, leaving Kashmir as one of South Asia's most sensitive – and complex – corners, despite its natural gifts. And yet, there was a time when Kashmir wore an entirely different face. From the 1970s through to the early 1980s, it was a magnet for visiting families, honeymooners, writers, artists, and backpackers from across India and beyond. Tourists came in droves, drawn by Srinagar's houseboats – stationary homes of intricately carved walnut and deodar (Indian cedar) woods – rocked gently on the placid surface of Dal and Nigeen Lakes (the former also has a floating vegetable and flower market that operates in the early morning); the Mughal gardens perfumed with rose; the endless slopes of Gulmarg's meadows; and the region's mercifully cool climes. Kashmir's allure even found its way into Bollywood, becoming a popular backdrop for the iconic song-and-dance montages. Often dubbed the 'Venice of the East', it offered a gentler face of India – one of languid shikara (gondola) rides, saffron-scented markets, and a famously warm welcome. I remember my first visit to Srinagar vividly. It was years ago, in early autumn, the valley dressed in its most luminous colours – russet, gold, ochre. I stayed on a houseboat moored on Nigeen Lake, where the water mirrored the tall poplars lining the shore. In the evening, I glided across the glassy lake in a shikara, and the boatman hummed a Kashmiri folk song as the oars dipped into the water. The air smelled faintly of woodsmoke, and for those few hours, everything seemed to slow down – the world felt quieter and simpler. It felt like a place outside of time, in the way only the most special of destinations seem to do. Yet, even with such serenity, there were signs of the region's complexities. Soldiers were a familiar sight, but life, in its own way, continued – unpredictable, but resilient. In recent years, the valley has gingerly inched back towards normalcy, with domestic tourism gradually trickling in. A surge in investment has led to the rise of boutique hotels and homestays, along with improved connectivity, including the launch of the all-weather, glass-roofed Vistadome Coach on the scenic Budgam-Banihal route in 2023, offering sweeping valley views. Winter sports have also regained popularity, with skiers carving tracks down Gulmarg's powdery slopes – one of Asia's finest ski destinations – and trekking groups venturing into the pine forests of Aru and Sonamarg. Meanwhile, local entrepreneurs continue to preserve traditional crafts, from papier-mâché and pashmina weaving to intricately carved walnut wood furniture, a hallmark of the region's artisanal heritage. Emerging attractions – like the ancient megaliths of Burzahom, often called the 'Stonehenge of Kashmir' – revealed a region eager to reclaim its place on the traveller's map. This momentum had been significant. Visitor numbers surged from 3.4 million in 2020 to a record-breaking 23.6 million in 2024, including 65,000 foreign tourists – an astonishing feat in a region once marked red on travel advisories. International events like the 2023 G20 Tourism Working Group meeting, and a new policy allowing films to be shot at even sensitive locations near the Line of Control, helped bolster the image of a Kashmir open and welcoming to the world once more. Yet, it is against this backdrop of hard-won optimism that the recent attack struck particularly hard. Occurring at the height of the tourist season, when the hotels were full and the Tulip Festival – set against the snowy peaks of the Zabarwan Range – had just broken records by drawing more than 800,000 visitors in a single month, the incident has sent ripples of concern throughout the region. Mass cancellations swiftly followed, and Kashmir's tourism-dependent economy faces fresh uncertainty. The British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has long maintained a cautionary stance on travel to Kashmir – and in light of this most recent event, it is likely the 'do not travel' advisory will remain firmly in place for some time to come. For Kashmir's hoteliers, guides, and artisans, who had glimpsed the possibility of sustained prosperity, the blow is acute. What the future holds is hard to say. The road to recovery will undoubtedly be long and fraught with challenges, needing time, patience, and unyielding effort. But if there's one thing Kashmir has always shown, it's that – no matter the hardship – it finds a way to endure, much like the chinar trees in winter that stand tall and strong despite the biting cold and heavy snow. The region will rise again.
