Presented by Kalsoom Muhammad - RIPS-12-09

Faiza Iftikhar- RIPS-12-27

Sultana Mushtaq-RIPS-12-10

Saira Fatimah-RIPS-12- 23

Rabia Iqbal-RIPS-12-110

Tehreem Ahmed-RIPS-12-24

Kashmir is a region located inthe northwestern part of theIndian subcontinent. Itincludes the Indian state ofJammu and Kashmir, thePakistani states of Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir andthe Chinese regions of AksaiChin.

To its north lie Chinese andRussian Turkistan. On its eastis Chinese Tibet. On theSouth and South-West lie thestates of Punjab andHimachal Pradesh. On thewest is the North WestFrontier Provinces ofPakistan, China and Russia.

West

North-

East

South

North

The Indian Independence Act, 1935 aimed atdividing United India into The Union of Indiaand The Dominion of Pakistan which laterbecame Independent Pakistan in 1947.According to this act the different states hadthe option of choosing whether they wanted tobe a part of India or Pakistan.

Kashmir ruled by a Hindu named MaharajaHari Singh.

October 1947 a Muslim revolution of freedomtook place. The Maharaja had no choice butto sign an “Instrument of Accession” to Indiangovernment providing them control over theKashmir region.

This was not accepted by Pakistani tribes andthe Muslim revolution and decided to moveforward into the region and then the Maharajaof Kashmir faced military powers. Maharajarequested India to assist, but India refused tohelp until Kashmir was officially a part ofIndia. After signing necessary documentsIndia started to progress into Kashmir withmilitary aid leading to the war of 1947

Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of

Accession in October 1947

In 1947, the Maharaja of Jammu and KashmirHari Singh, opposed either to join Pakistan orIndia. He signed an agreement with Pakistanon August 16, 1947 and tried to sign a similaragreement with India too. But at the time ofindependace public uprising between Hindus,Muslims and Sikhs rose up.

On October 22, 1947, the Pathan-armedtribes of the Northwest Frontier Province(NWFP) invaded Kashmir. Hari Singh wasalerted about the invasion. He wanted India’smilitary support but India refused to help untilKashmir was officially a part of India. Indiaagreed to the accession after consultingSheikh Abdullah, the leader of the NationalConference (NC). Hari Singh signed theaccord on October 27 and on the same dayIndian armed forces entered Kashmir to driveback the invaders.

This annoyed Pakistani Governor-GeneralMohammed Ali Jinnah. On October 27th, heordered Lt. General Sir Douglas Gracey, chiefof the Pakistan army, to send Pakistani troopsinto Kashmir but he withdraw his orders. InNovember, Jinnah transferred military suppliesto the invaders.

Indian military in Kashmir

In 1948 Jinnah sent Pakistani regular troopsto Kashmir.

On January 1, 1948, India’s Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru followed the advice ofBritish Governor General Lord Mountbatten,made a criticism with the UN Security Councilcalling for a peaceful agreement on disputesbetween India and Pakistan. In the complaintIndia promised to hold a “plebiscite orreferendum under international auspices,” assoon as the invaders would be expelled.

On January 20 and on April 21, 1948 theSecurity Council established a three-memberand five member UN commissionrespectively on India and Pakistan (UNCIP)to send them to Kashmir to investigate thesituation.

On July 7, 1948, following Minister SirMohammed Zafrullah Khan’s had his troopsin Kashmir.

On August 13, UNCIP passed a resolutioninforming both countries to cease fire andcompletely withdraw the Pakistani tribesmenin order to conduct a plebiscite. The cease-fire took place in January 1, 1949.

UNCIP passing resolution to cease fire in 1948

UNCIP sent a MonitoringGroup for India and Pakistan(UNMGIP) to Kashmir onJanuary 24, to monitor thecease-fire line (CFL). This linewas renamed in 1972 as theline of control or line of actualcontrol (LAC).

In December 1949, theSecurity Council commandedits President General A. G. L.McNaughton of Canada tonegotiate with India andPakistan on basis ofdemilitarization plan. Pakistanagreed on the plan but Indiaignored it by taking moral andlegal issues of plan whichfailed the plan.

On March 14, 1950,the Security Councilpassed another andappointed Australianjudge, Sir OwenDixon, as UNrepresentative.

In September 1950,Dixon suggested aproposal in which theplebiscite was only tobe held in KashmirValley but bothcountries rejected it.

Jawaharlal Nehru at a meeting in New Delhi on July 20, 1950,

with Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan of Pakistan (centre) and

Sir Owen Dixon, U.N. mediator on Kashmir (left).

In April 1951, the US Council appointedDr. Frank Graham, as UNrepresentative. Between December1951 and February 1953, Graham triedto convince both countries to accept hisdemilitarization proposals whichmentioned the reduction of the militaryof both countries in Kashmir and AzadKashmir before conducting plebiscite butit failed.

Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan’sPrime Minister, Mohammed AliBogra, met in August 20, 1953 inLondon. Both agreed to take theissue out of UN and solve itdirectly. Nehru had alreadyinformed Kashmir’s new PrimeMinister, Bakshi MohammedGhulam Mohammed about his aimand told Bogra that he wouldconduct a plebiscite in Kashmir.

Bogra returned to Pakistansuccessfully. But Nehru’s offerfailed to take place because Bogradelayed it by the politics ofGeneral Ayub Khan who wasplanning to grab political power.

Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammed Ali Bogra, talks

in August 20, 1953

On 30 October 1956, India adopts a

constitution for Kashmir declaring it a part

of the Indian Union. India's Home Minister,

Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, during his visit

to Srinagar, declared that the State of

Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of

India and there can be no question of a

plebiscite to determine its status and

forcefully incorporated Kashmir into it and

renamed it as Jammu Kashmir.

In February 1957, the Council authorized itspresident Gunnar Jarring to supervise Indiaand Pakistan on the proposals ofdemilitarization and plebiscite. Jarring did nothave any success and in April referred it to theCouncil to hold by negotiation, which Pakistanaccepted but India rejected.

In September Pakistan Prime Minister GeneralAyub Khan Noon’s said that his country wasready to withdraw its troops from Kashmir. TheSecurity Council sent Frank Graham whoagain tried to make an agreement between thetwo countries but India again rejected it.

Graham Report: 1958

In March 1958, Graham submitted a reportto the Security Council (CSC) suggestingto settle the dispute but as usual Indiarejected it. From the mid-1950s onward,the Soviet Union frees India by its frequentrejection in the UN. Since then, the issuedied in the Security Council until it wasagain raised in 1963 and 1965. The Indo-Pak borders remained mostly quiet duringthe period 1949-65. In 1965, India andPakistan fought another war.

Pakistan made plans for “OperationGibraltar” to recover Kashmir. As itdid in 1947, it first sent Pakistaniguerrillas into the Valley in August1965 hoping that the KashmiriMuslims would rise in rebellionagainst India.

On September 1, when Indiantroops crossed the internationalborder, Pakistan launched an attackon Jammu. In response, Indialaunched a series of attacksthrough and started battle with thePakistani army. As the warcontinued, the UN Security Council,supported by Britain and the USSR,call for an immediate cease-fire,which both countries accepted onSeptember 6.

In January 1966, at theinvitation of Soviet PremierAlexsei Kosygin, both LalBhadur Shastri and M. AyubKhan Khan, met in the city ofTashkent (Republic ofUzbekistan) and signed theagreement known as theTashkent Declaration. OnJanuary 10, the agreementwas official and ended by thewithdrawal of the Indo-Pakistani forces to theprevious cease-fire lines.Shastri died of a heart attackin Tashkent right after hesigned the declaration andMrs. Indira Gandhi succeededhim.

In 1971 India and

Pakistan fought a

third war over

Bangladesh’s

Independence in

which the Kashmir

dispute was a

secondary issue.

On July 2, 1972, Mrs. Gandhisigned the Simla agreement withMr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the firstPresident and later Prime Ministerof Pakistan. Under this agreement:“settling their differences throughbilateral negotiations .”

They also agreed that in “Jammuand Kashmir, the Line of Control(LOC) resulting from the cease-fireof December 17, 1971, shall berespected by both sides withoutdiscrimination to the recognizedposition of either side." Thisagreement became the basis forthe renewal of relations betweenthe two countries.

On July 24, 1973, Mr.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and

Mrs. Gandhi signed

another agreement in

New Delhi agreeing to

free all POW’s except

for 195 who were held

to be tried but were

later released without

trial.

Pakistan unilaterally

separated Gilgit

Agency and

Baltistan from Azad

Kashmir in

1974, and

integrated them into

Pakistan same to

what India did in

1956.

In 1968, following the end of the third Indo-Pakistani war, India released Sheikh Abdullah,leader of National conference and his colleague,Mirza Afzal Beg, from jail. Abdullah acceptedKashmir’s accession to India as final. As seen inMarch 10, 1972, in an interview with The Times(London), he said, “our dispute with thegovernment of India is not accession but it is thequantum of autonomy” for Kashmir. In June 1972,the state government headed by Mir Passim putthe ban on Abdullah’s entry into Kashmir as hedemanded for a plebiscite.

In 1974, Sheikh Abdullah and Mirza Afzal

Beg joined India in a series of negotiations.

The negotiations between Mrs. Gandhi’s

special representative G. Parthasarathi and

Mirza Beg resulted in a six-point accord

called the Kashmir Accord.

The accord was signed by Abdullah on

February 12, 1975. Abdullah agreed to

Kashmir’s status as a part of India allowing

enjoying special conditions. On February

25, 1975, Abdullah became the Chief

Minister of the state. In July 1975, his party,

the National Conference finally came into

existence again. He governed the state

until he died on September 21, 1982.

Sheikh Abdullah’s son, Dr. Farooq

Abdullah, succeeded him. But Dr.

Farooq joined by the influential Maulvi

Farooq of the Awami Action Committee

demanded autonomy.

During the 1983 legislative elections

despite Mrs. Gandhi’s anger and her

management of the elections, Dr.

Farooq Abdullah won the election.

Upset by Dr. Farooq’s demand for autonomy,

Mrs. Gandhi dismissed Abdullah’s

government in 1984 and replaced it with

Ghulam Mohammad Shah as its Chief

Minister.

As public violence increased under

Ghulam Mohammad Shah’s

leadership, in the Valley and Jammu, he

was dismissed in 1986. In the same

year Dr. Farooq Abdullah signed a deal

with Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, the new Prime

Minister. In June 1986, National

Conference and Congress were united.

The union of two parties won a victory in

the March 1987 elections but it did not

help Abdullah to keep power for long.

The election of 1987 resulted in

Abdullah’s defeat following the Muslim

uprising in 1989.

Pakistan was ready to support the secessionistgroups with funds, weapons and training, as itcontinued to make claims over Kashmir. Threeprincipal umbrella groups were involved in theuprising. One group, composed of Muslimfundamentalists. The second umbrella group wastied to the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front(JKLF) who demanded an independent Kashmir.The third group was the Jammu and KashmirPeoples’ League. These groups demanded that aplebiscite as promised by India and guaranteed bythe UN Resolutions of 1948-49 be conducted sothat the Kashmiris could exercise their right of self-determination.

India, however, rejected their demandsbased on the argument that in 1956 theKashmir constituent assembly accededto India. It further argued that theplebiscite was outdated and that basedon the July 1972 Simla agreementPakistan was forced to resolve theKashmir dispute bilaterally with Indiaand not under the guidance of anyinternational organization.

The action of Indian Government dismissed Abdullah’s

government in August 1990. Under the July 1990 Jammu

and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act and Armed Forces

Special Powers Act (AFSP; the security forces forcefully

committed a series of human right abuses. The abuses

included the following:

Staged tease “encounters” for the deaths of victims, who

died in police custody,

Cruel treatment of prisoners and suspects with beatings,

burnings with cigarettes, suspension by the

feet and electric shocks,

Random arrest and detention of the suspects for more

than 12 months,

Searching and arresting suspects without a warrant.

By early 1996, the central government decided to deal with theinsurgency (rebellion). It restored state government underAbdullah who had won in the September elections, although theAll-Party Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference (APHC) boycotted theelections. In February 1996, the central government released fromjail the four Pakistani separatist leaders, Imran Rahi of the Hiz-Ul-Mujahideen, Bilal Lodhi of the Al-Barq, Babbar Badr of the MuslimJanbaz Force (MJF), and Ghulam Mohiuddin of the MuslimMujahideen and started talks with them. They agreed to talks withthe government with no conditions and without Pakistan’sinvolvement. On February 10, another Pakistani Master AhsanDar, the founder of the Hiz-Ul-Mujahideen, who was in jail, joinedthem by supported the four Pakistani. The leader of the PeoplesLeague, Shabir Ahmad Shah, also joined the conference, sayingthat the problem could not be solved without the includingPakistan in the talks. The constant insurgency increased conflictbetween India and Pakistan and increased the chance of nuclearencounter.

In the midst of the Kashmir Muslim insurgency,tensions between India and Pakistan became sointense that in May 1990, the Pakistani militaryheaded by General Mirza Aslam Beg was willing touse nuclear weapons to “take out New Delhi.”Prime Minister Benazeer Bhutto, took a hostilestand towards India. Despite these hostile relations,India and Pakistan held several talks at foreignsecretary levels between 1990 and January 1994,but without any results. Pakistan insisted that Indiastop its counter-insurgency operations, while Indiainsisted that that the talks should focus onPakistan’s cross border aid to the Muslim militants.

After Benazeer’s second

discharge, Nawaz Sharif took office as

Prime Minister in February 1997. Indo-

Pak relations temporarily soften. Several

meetings were held. At meetings they

formed eight joint “working groups” that

would look at the Kashmir issue, for the

first time since 1972.

These relations changed after the parliament elections ofMarch 1998 when Indian government that took a hard standagainst Pakistan. The Home Minister, L. K. Advani, of thenew government threatened to go after the terrorists eveninto the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Indo-Pakistani conflictsincreased in May 1998.

On July 29, when Vajpayee and Sharif met at the tenthsummit of the SAARC held in Columbo, Sri Lanka, theencounter failed. Sharif insisted to resolve the “core issue” ofKashmir. India’s foreign secretary, K. Raghunath, respondedby saying Pakistan’s focus on the issue of Kashmir as“neurotic”. In contrast, when they met on September 23, atUN General Assembly session, in New York, they agreed totry to resolve the Kashmir issue “peacefully”. This agreementwas not taken up by the Pakistani military including GeneralMusharraf.

The Threat of War and the Bush

Administration’s Role in Ending It:

2001

On December 13, 2001 the Indian

parliament building was attacked by the

Pakistan-based terrorist. Tensions

between India and Pakistan got intense.

Both countries started moving military

along the Line Of Control (LOC).

On January 12, 2002, Gn. Pervaiz Musharrafpromised not to use his country as a base forterrorism in Kashmir. India adopted it and thesituation was calm. But Gn. Musharraf released 500militants and went against his promise.

In May 14, the Indian government send 100,000troops to close the LOC. Musharraf responded bysending half million troops to the borders and on May27. These tensions made the two countries comecloser to the war. It was this threat that made BritishForeign Secretary, Jack Straw; U.S. Deputy ofSecretay of State, Richard Armitage; and DefenseSecretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to visit both Pakistanand India in May and June 2002 and they succeededin resolving tensions.

During the SAARC summit meeting,held January 4-6, 2004, Vajpayee metGn. Musharraf on January 5. Theydiscussed an agreement that had beenput together by Indian and Pakistaniofficials. As Musharraf said in December2004, he wanted to compromise on theconflict by negotiations. Therefore, theleaders gave their approval on theagreement.

In order to settle the dispute that remained forgotten till thepresent Pakistani and Indian politics, the InternationalCommunity must enter and take on some new steps. Since1947, the Kashmir conflict has threatened to initiate a nuclearwar between India and Pakistan. These countries havealready fought three wars over the region; still the UnitedNations have failed to settle the situation. In January 2008,leaders of Pakistan and India suggested that they can lastlycomplete a long-term resolution with international support.United States has been working to facilitate peace talksbetween Pakistan and India to resolve the Kashmir Conflict.In July 15, 2009, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilaniand Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had agreed todiscuss resolution of the dispute. All what these two countriesshould unite is to begin the upholding or supporting of conflictresolution. All that is left is action.

References

http://geography.howstuffworks.com/middle-east/geography-of-kashmir.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir

http://www.kashmiri-cc.ca/kashmir.htm

http://hinduism.about.com/od/history/a/Kashmir-Paradise-Lost.htm

http://sas1500.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/the-territorial-dispute-within-the-kashmir-region/The Territorial Dispute within the Kashmir Region

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/10-11/30

http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/documents/harisingh47.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/312908/Kashmir/214223/The-Kashmir-problem#ref673547

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,793895,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/08/27/AR2008082703195.html?nav=rss_world