About Kashmir

A region of south central Asia, mainly mountainous but including the broad and fertile valleys of the river Indus and its majority tributaries. The territory is divided into two parts by the Himalayas. To the southeast are three region: the Vale of Kashmir or upper Jehlum valley, the districts of poonch and Mangla in the middle Jehlum valley and the Jummu-Kathua plain or the Chenab and Ravi valleys. Beyond the Himalayas, to the north and Northeast are Gilgit, Baltistan and Ladakh, the last two mainly occupied by the Karakoram ranges.

Kashmir is de facto divided between Pakistan and India on the basis of the cease-fire line of January 1949. The area illegally occupied by India is 139,000 square kilometers. The Northwestern section, as far as the Afghan frontier, is in Pakistan where it is known as Azad Kashmir (”Free Kashmir”), area 84,000 square kilometers. It includes Gilgit, Baltistan and about one-third of Kashmir province and half of Poonch.

Kashmir occupies one of the world’s highest regions, including the mountains of the Karakoram and northern sector of the Himalayas chains, with peaks rising to over 8,000 meter such as K-2 (8,611 meter) and Nanga Parbat (8,126 meter). The river Indus enters the region from the southeast and flows through a long valley parallel to the Himalayan chains, entering Pakistan through a deep gorge. The other rivers of Kashmir are tributaries of the Indus but not all of them join it inside Kashmir. They include the Shyok and the Gilgit on its right bank, the Jehlum and the Chenab on its left bank. There are many lakes.

The largest towns are Srinagar in the Vale of Kashmir and Jammu at the southern foot of the Himalayas, respectively the summer and winter capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. There are three

all-weather roads from Srinagar: to Muzzafarabad (the capital of Pakistani Kashmir) and Rawalpindi; the railhead for Sialkot in Pakistan; and by the Banihal Pass (2,832 meter high) and tunnel to Jammu. Also in 1978, the Karakoram Highway was opened from Pakistan to Sinkiang.

THE FINAL PHASE

The struggle of the people of Kashmir for their rights has entered the final phase. They have waited for forty long years pinning their hope on India’s good conscience. They got only promises but no fulfillment. They counted on Pakistan’s ability to pressurize India into doing justice to them. It did not happen. They put their trust in the United Nations. It only passed resolutions for holding a fair and impartial plebiscite. They found that with each passing year, India became more` obdurate, more defiant and became bold enough to declare that Kashmir was an integral part of it. They find the tide of Hindu fundamentalism is India rising to a vicious crescendo. It has come to hold the levers of power in India at the center and in the states. It has already pushed the government into substantially eroding Kashmir’s special status in the Indian union, guaranteed by Article 370 of the Constitution. It is now pitching for the abrogation of the Article itself. Communal riots, killing of Muslims and economic discrimination have become endemic. The people of Kashmir have decided to wage their own war of freedom. The history of the world shows that when this happens, it is always the final phase.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE KASHMIR ISSUE

March 23, 1940
Pakistan Resolution is passed at Iqbal Park, Lahore, demanding the establishment of an independent state in area in which the Muslims are in majority. Alphabet “K” in the word “Pakistan” represents Kashmir, as it is a Muslim majority area.

June 3, 1947
British government announces plan accepting the demand of Muslims for establishment of Independent State of Pakistan in areas where the Muslims are in majority. All the political parties including the Muslim League (representing Muslims) and the Congress (representing Hindus) accept the plan.

August 14, 1947
State of Pakistan comes into being

October 27, 1947
Indian troops land in Sringar, capital of Kashmir state. India claims that on the same day the ruler of Kashmir signs formal documents of accession to India but never shown the document.

October 27, 1947
The British Viceroy, Mr. Mountbatten in a letter accompanying the instrument of Accession says, “It is my Government’s wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir, the question of accession should be settled by a reference to the people of Kashmir.”

November 1, 1947
Governor General of Pakistan, Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah meets Governor General of India, Mr. Mountbatten. Mr. Jinnah tells Mountbatten that Kashmir’s accession to India “was not a bona fide one since it rested on fraud and violence.”

April 21, 1948
United Nations Security Council passes a resolution “that the future of the State of Jammu and Kashmir shall be determined in accordance with the will of people.”

January 5, 1948
The UN Commission for India and Pakistan passes a resolution, noting that both India and Pakistan had accepted the following principle: “The question of accession of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan will be decided through the democratic method of free and impartial plebiscite. ”

April 21, 1948
United Nation Security Council passes a resolution “that the future of the state of Jammu and Kashmir shall be determine in accordance with the will of the people.”

January 5, 1949
The UN Commissioner for Pakistan and India passes a resolution, nothing that both Pakistan and India had accepted the following principals: ” The question of accession of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan or India will be decided through the democratic method of free and impartial plebiscite.”

January 24, 1957
The Security Council, reaffirming its previous resolution to the effect, “that the final disposition of the state of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of United Nations,” further declared that any action taken by the Constituent Assembly formed in Kashmir ” would not constitute disposition of the state in accordance with the above principles.”

February 5, 1964
India reneges from her pledge. The Indian representative tells the Security Council, ‘I wish to make it clear on behalf of my government that in no circumstances can we agree to the holding of a plebiscite in Kashmir.” Defense Minister, Kirshnan Menon gives the reason: “Kashmir would vote to join Pakistan and no Indian Government responsible for agreeing to plebiscite would survive.

March, 1965
The Indian Parliament passes a bill declaring Kashmir a province of India.

August, 1965
India accuses Pakistan of sending infiltrators to Kashmir and Indian forces cross the cease-fire line in Kashmir.

September 6, 1965
India attacks Pakistan across the international border and tries to capture Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore.

September 23, 1965
Security Council arranges a cease-fire.

January 10, 1966
The Soviet Union arranges talks between Pakistan and India; the Tashkent Agreement is signed, through the mediating efforts of the Soviet Prime Minister Alexi Kosygin. The Agreement reaffirming that the dispute should be settled by peaceful means. The armies are to be withdrawn to their original positions.

January 30, 1971
The Indian Intelligence arranges a plane hijacking of an Indian plane to Pakistan from Kashmir, and on that pretext bans over-flight of Pakistani planes to disrupt communication between the two wings of Pakistan.

November, 1971
Indian Army attacks East Pakistan.

December 16, 1971
Pakistan surrenders East Pakistan to India. India declares East Pakistan as “Bangladesh.”

July 2, 1972
The Simla Agreement between Pakistan and India is signed. Both agree to make efforts for the establishment or durable peace by seeking a solution to existing problems, including “a final settlement of Jammu and Kashmir.”

1987
The current uprising of the people of Kashmir starts as protest against inefficiency, corruption, religious discrimination and Hindu communalism.

January 19, 1990
The Indian government brings Kashmir, wracked by wide spread Muslim freedom unrest, under its direct control. The State legislature suspended, government is removed and Ex director general of Indian Secret Service, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Mr. Jagmohan is appointed governor.

January 20, 1990
Large scale demonstration. Thirty people killed by Indian Security forces. Curfew imposed in most cities.

February 25, 1990
Government employees join demonstrations.

February 27, 1990
India refuses to allow any United Nations official to visit Kashmir.

March 2, 1990
Forty killed in firing when more than one million Kashmiris march through the streets of Srinagar. Police ordered shoot at sight.

March 28, 1990
Refugees start pouring into Pakistan from Occupied Kashmir.

April 10, 1990
Prime Minister Singh of India threatens war, and says, “we are not going to stop till we have achieved our objectives.

April 13, 1990
Prime Minister V.P. Singh warns, “India will teach them a lesson.”

April 14, 1990
Authorities send military reinforcements to Kashmir.

IS KASHMIR AN INTEGERAL PART OF INDIA?

Mr. Alifuddin Turrabi, the editor of Kashmir Al-Muslimah (March 1999 issue), a weekly magazine in Arabic, published from Muzzaffarabad, Kashmir:

Legally and constitutionally, no country with the name of “INDIA” exists as according to the Constitution (adopted on January 26, 1951), the official and constitutional name is “BAHRAT” which was actually a ” Utopian ” Hindu religious state in early history of this religion exactly same as ” Israel” a Jewish state that came into existence after the disintegration of Solomon Kingdom. The other Sister State was Yahudia. The so- called ” Indian ” citizens carry passports which clearly describe it’s the country name as ” Bharat ” in Hindi language. The same situation is with its currency, postage stamps, postage seals, and official gazettes.

In the Western and Middle Eastern media the term ” India ” or “Hind” had always been referred to geographical location and never to a single nation. India is not and never a politically united nation, but rather a geographical area like Iberian Peninsula where Spain and Portugal are separate countries for countries. Another example is that of Arabian Peninsula where Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, Kuwait Oman, Qatar and two Yemens are separate independent countries. Historically also India was never a united country. Even at the time of Ashoke and during Mughals period, this subcontinent was divided in at least Six independent countries. Of course north India is not only “India.”

Even at the time of British colonial rule India had many independent States such as Hyderabad, Kashmir, Bhawalpur etc. This is worthy to note that only Hyderabad was much bigger than the combined area of France and Germany. All these countries had their separate currency, railway and postal system.

Lingually, also so called united India is one of the most un-united area. Even now southern languages are completely different from those of northern languages. The southern inhabitants are still not ready to accept “Hindi” colonialism. Hindu colonists were very clever and they deceived the whole world by claiming ” Secular Indian Republic “. If it is really secular India why it’s official name is ” Bharat “. Simply because it is Hindu State of Bharat, where the only right of non-Hindu is to be killed.

Now question arises why Non-Hindu people should live in this Hindu Bharat. This is very logical that they should have their own independent ” Countries and how a Muslim Kashmir can be an integral part of Hindu Bharat.

HISTORY OF KASHMIR

Kashmir was a Muslim majority princely state under the British Raj. In its 1947 partition plan granting independence to Pakistan and India, Britain’s paramountcy over Kashmir and other princely states lapsed on August 15 of that year, and its people were then entitled to choose between accession to either power.

Problems arose in three states where the Maharaja’s creed differed from that of the popular majority. In Junagarh and Hyderabad state (Sultanate Asifia) where the ruler was a Muslim and the subjects predominantly Hindu, India uncoiled its military to insure that popular sentiments favoring accession to the new Hindu nation prevailed. Kashmir presented the converse situation: a Hindu Maharaja presiding over an 80 percent Muslim population. According to India’s own theory of international law and sovereignty of princely states, Kashmir’s accession to either of its neighbors should have been decided by a plebiscite or equivalent exercise of self-determination.

Indeed, India’s icon and then Prime Minister Pandit Nehru repeatedly affirmed the same to the United Nations and to the world. Kashmir’s Hindu Maharaja, however, chose defiance. His repression had sparked a popular revolt months prior to the lapse of British paramountcy, and his regime stood at the abyss when he pleaded for Indian military intervention on October 27, 1947. The plea was a legal nullity since Kashmir’s sovereignty had already devolved on its people, but India responded nonetheless and rescued the Maharaja from oblivion. Since then the tale is both sad and dismaying.

India raced to the United Nations Security Council seeking a resolution to halt the Kashmiri conflict and to conduct a self-determination plebiscite under United Nations auspices. The Security Council embraced the Indian plan in a pair of resolutions adopted on August 13, 1948, and January 5, 1949 that were expressly agreed to by both Pakistan and India.

A cease-fire in Kashmir was implemented along a line of control that de facto divided it into Azad Kashmir (operating under Pakistani suzereignty) and Indian occupied Kashmir (operating under Indian control). But India unilaterally renounced its legal obligation to permit an internationally administered plebiscite in Kashmir when it recognized that accession to India was a delusion.

Since the renunciation, the Kashmir stalemate has occasioned a 1965 war between India and Pakistan, and endless unfructifying bilateral negotiations between the two rivals. India intransigently insists that its illegally occupied portion of Kashmir is as much within its sovereign universe as Calcutta or Bombay, and that its sovereignty is non-negotiable. Pakistan lacks the leverage to coax India into budging. More importantly, the self-determination right of the Kashmiri people is at stake, and that right cannot be the sport of any other nation.

The denial of self-determination in defiance of the United Nations Security Council now threatens to find expression in the mushroom cloud that Prime Minister Vajpayee celebrates. Since 1989, more than 65,000 people have been killed in Indian-occupied Kashmir. Rape, torture, plunder, and the destruction of schools and hospitals are commonplaces. At a cost of $4 million per day, more than 600,000 Indian soldiers are deployed there, the most militarized region on the planet.

Kashmiri Muslims recommend strengthened moral suasion to obtain India’s compliance with its Kashmir self-determination duty. The All-Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) should be internationally recognized as the legitimate voice of the Kashmiri people and entitled to senior partnership in all talks over Kashmir’s settlement. Mediation by an internationally commanding figure like South African President Nelson Mandela, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, or former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

is pivotal to success. And any vote for Kashmir freedom should be hedged with constitutional mandates for permanent neutrality, a renunciation of a military and war in international relations, legislative and executive blocking power for each religious minority, strong local autonomy, and relocation assistance for all who desire to leave under the new political dispensation. Nuclear war over Kashmir is too important and frightening to be left to India and Pakistan.

GENOCIDE IN KASHMIR

Sufferings of Kashmiris at the hand of Indian army (Tarjuman -ul-Quran, Lahore, Pakistan, may 1999, page 46. magazine founded by great Islamic scholar Syed Abul Ala Moudidi and presently edited by Professor Khurshid Ahmed) The figures are old.

PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES : 61,190 (INCLUDING CHILDREN, WOMEN, OLD AND YOUTH)

PEOPLE INJURED : 86,327

YOUNG KASHMIRIS IN TORTURE CELLS : 75,661

YOUNG KASHMMIRS WHO LOST THEIR ORGANS : 6,575

PEOPLE MIGRATED TO PAKISTAN : 42,100

HOUSES AND SCHOOLS DEMOLISHED AND BURNED : 38,153

Is there any one to listen to these miseries?

WHAT ISLAMIC SCHOLARS SAY ON KASHMIR

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Chairman All Hurriyet Party Conference (APHC)

“The situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir is ten times worse than Kosovo.”

Khalid Al-Maeena, Editor-in-Chief, Daily “Arab News”, Published from NY, London, Cairo, Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran. (February 21, 1999)

“The situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir is worse than Kosovo but without Television cameras.”

Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the greatest Muslim leader of South Asia and the Founder of the Nation of Islamic Republic Pakistan, talking to Karachi Daily “Dawn” on Jan. 14, 1948

“KASHMIR IS THE BLOOD-LINE FOR PAKISTAN. PAKISTAN IS KASHMIR AND KASHMIR IS PAKISTAN. I CAN NOT FORSEE PAKISTAN WITHOUT KASHMIR”

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director of the Kashmiri American Council, Washington, DC, in his lecture, entitled, “Kashmir Today” at the Foreign Service Institute of the United States, State Department on June 6, 1998.0

India’s brutal military occupation of the disputed territory of Kashmir and its notoriety for unspeakable human rights crimes according to every impartial human rights group that has examined the plight of the people of Kashmir. It makes a mockery of India’s boast of the world’s largest democracy. India treats any democratic stirrings in Kashmir as treasonous punishable by death, torture, rape, or abduction, depending on the day of the week, and the savagery of the local general.

Mr. Nazir Ahmed, the Kashmiri member of the British House of Lords, while sparkling in editorial board meetings with the two major Washington, D.C. newspapers, The Washington Times and The Washington Post

” Kashmir is neither a national security nor economic asset for India. The 700,000 Indian military and paramilitary forces deployed there cost India $14 million per day, a colossal sum that arrests India’s prosperity

Meer Waiz Umar Farooq, Former Chairman of APHC, while talking to newsmen on May 15, 1999 in Srinagar. )

“Kashmir is Paradise on Earth and Paradise can not be owned by non-believers worshippers of thousands of idols and cow). It must be made free from them at every cost.”

ARE KASHMIRIS INTERNATIONAL “UNTOUCHABLES?”

The role of the United Nations has been of a spectator in addressing the Kashmir conflict unfavorably with its assertive and instrumental role in bringing independence and self-determination to Namibia after 76 years of South African apartheid oppression. Why should the lives and souls of Kashmiris be cavalierly written off like international “untouchables,”? What is the crime in demanding self-determination as prescribed by international law?

(Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director of the Kashmiri American Council, Washington, DC, in his lecture, entitled, “Kashmir Today” at the Foreign Service Institute of the United States, State Department on June 6, 1998.)

Syed Abul Ala Moudidi - the great Islamic Scholar in His Book “Kashmir Al-Hurra,” Page 37, Published in Arabic from Islamic Publications, Lahore, Pakistan, 1965)

“Kashmir belongs to Muslim Ummah and India has no right to rule over Kashmir. Kashmir is Islamic and must be part of Islamic Pakistan at every cost. My all prayers and wishes for Kashmiri Muslims in their just struggle.”

URDU DIGEST, LAHORE, PAKISTAN, NOV. 1989

According to the well respected monthly “Urdu Digest (Nov. 1989)”: In 1973, the Indian government sent a strong delegation under Mr. D.P.Dhar, the retired Indian foreign secretary to Spain to study how Muslims were exterminated from the Iberian Peninsula. The delegation stayed there for three months and prepared a comprehensive report. That report was directed to Jammu and Kashmir for implementation. Salient features of this report according to the prestigious magazine were: spreading of cinemas and bars in every corner of the state, providing mixed education in all institutions, the strict implementation of family planning procedures so that ratio of Muslim population could be reduced. The reference article is “Kashmir - Jannat-e- Arzi” and available from the monthly’s office in Lahore.

LATEST CALL FROM KASHMIRIS

We, Kashmiris condemn India’s ongoing bombing and artillery campaign in the Kargil region of Indian occupied Kashmir. The expected three-month Indian military assault in Kargil has been predictably blamed on unidentified infiltrators supported by Pakistan to detract attention from the universal wrath native Kashmiris feel toward India’s oppressive rule and defiance of 52-year-old United Nations Security Council resolutions prescribing a plebiscite under United Nations auspices fashioned and agreed to by India itself. Alien rulers invariably seek scapegoats for the strife their repression provokes among the ruled, and India is no exception. Even in times of so-called “peace” in Kashmir, India deploys 600,000 to 700,000 military and paramilitary forces to contain indigenous unrest, a testament to its recognition that the people of Kashmir do not accept the legitimacy of its colonial rule.

We observe that India’s latest escalation of warfare in Kashmir proves the bankruptcy of the recent Lahore Declaration issued jointly by the Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India. It conspicuously dodged the chief bone of contention between the two nations that has caused estrangement, tensions, and two wars namely, the determination of Kashmir’s future through a self-determination mechanism satisfactory to the Kashmiri people.

That resolution, will never be reached in bilateral negotiations between Pakistan and India because India has proved unmovable for more than half a century with such an equation. To jump start progress on ending the Kashmir conflict and with its daily extrajudicial killings and harrowing human rights violations require both third party mediation and the participation of the genuine voice of the Kashmiri people - the All-Parties Hurriyet Conference. We emphasize that the Kargil fighting featuring war planes, helicopters, and artillery and an intrusion into Pakistani territory represented the most serious escalation in the Kashmir conflict in more than two decades. It is also coupled with India’s soaring nuclear and missile ambitions (a hydrogen bomb test seems imminent as does a successor to its Agni II missile), its resistance to initialing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and the choice of the muscular Hindu fundamentalist BJP party to celebrate a mushroom cloud as a prime campaign plank.

If the United States and the United Nations Security Council neglect to inject urgency into resolving the Kashmir conflict, nuclear war in South Asia may ensue either by accident or design. Isn’t such a potential catastrophe too important to be left to only India and Pakistan?

(Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director of the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), Washington, D.C. 27 May 1999.)

THE QUESTIONS KASHMIRI ASK:

Why do the Indian Army special units need nine interrogation centers in Srinagar (Capitol of Kashmir) alone?

Why does the Indian government block Amnesty International and other impartial groups from investigating human rights abuses?

What is to be made of the United Nations cease-fire line monitoring group report that last year India committed 4,551 violations with 60,500 rounds of ammunition, rockets, mortar and artillery killing 101 civilians in Azad Kashmir and displacing more than 50,000?