Narendra Modi took detour and referred Gilgit-Baltistan and
Baluchistan subtly in his independence speech this year. Today, his statement has big
importance because of India’s renewed foreign policy. Gilgit-Baltistan and
Baluchistan are completely different issues as far as India is concerned and
therefore, I will write them separately. Whatever I am writing here is available
in public space. I am just collating them for simple understanding.
What India refers as POK (Pakistan Occupied
Kashmir) and Pakistan refers as Azad Kashmir are completely different. When we
say our state of Jammu and Kashmir, we refer to the following map. We are also
aware that large part of our J&K has been occupied by Pakistan and China.
When we refer to POK, we refer to Azad Kashmir (Pakistan’s term and not mine!)
and Gilgit-Baltistan combined. The
dark green area in this map is Gilgit-Baltistan and pale green is so called
Azad Kashmir (POK).
Kashmir’s Hindu ruler Dogras annexed Gilgit-Baltistan in
1846 and ruled since then. They had given this region to British on lease for
60 years in 1935. This is very high altitude area. One can wonder the utility
of this area to British. British administered Gilgit-Baltistan from Delhi. The
region’s security responsibility was with Gilgit Scout which was managed by
British. Before the partition of India, Lord Mountbatten cancelled the lease agreement on 1-Aug-1947 and returned this
region to Raja Hari Singh.
Maharaja appointed Brigadier Ghansar Singh as governor of this region and
posted British officer Major W A Brown and Captain A S Mathieson of Gilgit
Scout there.
After the partition of British India, princely states were
given the choice of joining India or Pakistan. Raja Hari Singh requested India
and Pakistan to sign standstill agreement till the time he takes the final
decision on accession. All civil supplies to his states were coming from
Pakistan. Therefore, he wanted to keep Pakistan satisfied. Pakistan signed the
standstill agreement in Aug-47 but India requested some time to think over it.
Meanwhile, Pakistan started sending tribesmen from
North-West region (Pathans), Afridis, and their regular soldiers in plain
clothes in Kashmir. It created a huge law and order problem in Kashmir. Helpless
Raja Hari Singh signed the instrument of accession on 26-Oct-1947 with India and sent it
to Lord Mountbatten. Indian military
landed on Srinagar airport on 27-Oct-1947 to fight Pakistan’s invasion. He also
sent one letter along with it. Pakistan claims that Raja Hari Singh talks about
accession as temporary arrangement until plebiscite is taken. But, I could not
find any such reference in that letter. Moreover, Pakistan’s objection has been
how Maharaja could sign an instrument of accession when standstill agreement
with Pakistan was in place.
On 2-Nov-1947, Major Brown mutinied in Gilgit. He arrested Governor Ghansar Singh and raised the
Pakistani flag at the capital of Gilgit. He informed to Lt Colonel Roger Bacon, in Lahore, the
accession of Gilgit to Pakistan. Pakistani military immediately took over the
control of the region and used it as a base to attack other parts of Jammu and
Kashmir.
As I
had written in my earlier blog that British wanted the partition of India more
than Muslim League or Jinnah. Communist Russia’s influence was increasing in the
region. Indian National Congress was coming closer to Communist Russia. Bacha
Khan (Frontier Gandhi), Afghanistan, state of Kalat (Baluchistan) were coming
under communist influence. British wanted a region in Indian subcontinent from
where they could keep a watch on Soviet Union. Congress leaders refused this
demand. But Jinnah
accepted it and rest is the history of partition of India.
Gilgit-Baltistan
was the critical area for this design. This may be the reason why British
demanded this region on lease from Raja Hari Singh in 1935. If this region
would have remained with India, Soviet Union (now Tajikistan) is just 25 KM away
from India! See the map. Keeping Gilgit-Baltistan with India would have
defeated the purpose of partition of India. All the British officers of
Pakistan supported the coup of Major Brown. He was rewarded appropriately in
1948 for his services to King of England as “Most Exalted Order of the British Empire to Brown,
Major (acting) William Alexander, Special List (ex-Indian Army)”.
Today, demography
of both Gilgit-Baltistan and
POK have undergone tremendous changes. Gilgit-Baltistan was once Shia majority
area. Bhutto and subsequently General Zia infused Sunni Muslim in this region.
Last few decades have seen ethnic cleansing of Shia by Sunnis and Pak military
in this region. POK should be actually called as Pak Occupied Jammu (POJ).
People from POJ are different from Kashmir and Punjabi speaking. They wanted to
merge with greater Punjab. The region had 70% Muslim and 30% Hindus and Sikhs.
The ethnic cleansing ensured no Hindu and Sikh in POJ today. Gilgit-Baltistan
and POJ (POK) have not been recognized as Pakistani states in their
Constitution till today. They do have some local government but they are
Federally Administrated areas and managed by Ministry of Kashmir Affair. One of
the reason Pakistan is not recognizing them as their states because they think
that someday in future there would be plebiscite in whole of erstwhile Princely
State of Jammu and Kashmir. They think that Sunni Muslims of these regions and
our Kashmir will support accession to Pakistan. Day dream though!
Our position is very clear. Raja Hari Singh signed the unconditional
instrument of accession on 26-Oct-1947 and therefore mutiny by Major Brown on
2-Nov-1947 is completely unlawful and unacceptable to us. The constitution of
India recognizes POJ and Gilgit-Baltistan are integral part of India and therefore,
Pakistan must return it back to us immediately!
***
