Malik Ashraf
PEACEFUL co-existence and cooperation among states having geographical proximity is undoubtedly the best propeller of their economic well-being and security. The emergence of EU in the Post World War-II period that transformed hostility into an impregnable bonhomie as well as economic and political cooperation is quintessential of this irrefutable reality. The ASEAN is yet another model of shared economic prosperity. But unfortunately South Asia continues to remain bereft of regional peace and security due to the hegemonic desires of India which regrettably is locked in disputes with almost all its neighbours including Pakistan. No serious effort has come forth to resolve the disputes that mar the crystallization of an ambience of cooperation and peaceful co-existence.
The major issue in this regard is the Kashmir dispute which is an unfinished agenda of the partition of the sub-continent. Pakistan and India have fought three wars which have cast them into a perennial mode of animosity. Unfortunately the situation is more attributable to the intransigent attitude of India which has all along refused to grant the right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir as enshrined in the UN resolutions.
The continued denial of the right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir pushed them to taking the option of an armed struggle in 1989. India has been using ruthless force to subdue the freedom struggle. According to the authentic and recorded accounts more than one hundred thousand Kashmiris have been killed since then besides rape of thousands of women. Amnesty International and other international human rights organizations have been regularly putting out reports regarding blatant violation of human rights in the valley. It is interesting to note that notwithstanding Indian claim of Kashmir being its integral part it acknowledged disputed status of the territory in the Simla Agreement, Lahore Declaration and has also remained engaged in sporadic dialogues to orchestrate confidence-building measures paving the way for final settlement of the dispute. During the Musharraf era as a result of back channel diplomacy the two countries had almost agreed on an interim solution which could ensure optimum benefit for the Kashmiris while protecting the essential interests of Pakistan and India. Kashmir was to be structured in self-governing sub-regions on both sides of the LoC similar to the approach recommended by Owen Dixon (UNCIP) for sub-regional plebiscites. The sub-regions could have had their own administration, police, security and legislator. The Kashmiris could freely move and engage in local commerce across sub-regions, and in that sense, the LoC would have lost relevance for them. The effort, however, stalled in early 2007, with the judicial crisis in Pakistan which unsettled Musharraf. Later in November 2008, the Mumbai terror attacks dealt a fatal blow to the initiative. The foregoing reality again insinuated that India accepted the existence of Kashmir dispute and the need for its resolution.
However, since the arrival of Narendra Modi — a staunch follower of RSS ideology of Hindutva — as Prime Minister of India, the security situation in the region has become extremely grave due to the continued bellicose posturing against Pakistan, scrapping of article 370 and 35 A of the Indian constitution changing the special status of the state and its subsequent annexation through Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019. Narendra Modi in his speech on the Independence Day of India last year, emphatically claimed that he had accomplished within seven months which could not be achieved in seven decades, realizing the dream of Vallabhai Patel. This Indian action and continued lockdown in the valley is simply unacceptable to the people of IoK and Pakistan. The continued resistance by the people of Kashmir is a ranting testimony to this fact.
Baffled by the resolve of the resistance leaders in IoK and in the wake of some retaliatory actions initiated by them against Indian security forces, India has been accusing Pakistan of sending infiltrators from Azad Kashmir to carry out these attacks. Pakistan rightly fears— that encouraged by the attitude of some powers which are takers of the Indian narrative to protect their strategic and commercial interests—these allegations could be a premonition to yet another false flag operation against Pakistan with a view to diverting attention of the world community from the ever deteriorating human rights situation in the IoK.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has been persistently warning the world about the designs of the Modi Government and the threat it poses to regional peace and security which is hostage to Indian designs to establish her hegemony in the region. Pakistan though being capable of thwarting any aggression against it does not want military confrontation with India and therefore has continuously made peace overtures towards her without any reciprocity. It is fully cognizant of the horrors of a clash between two nuclear states. The madness exhibited by the Indian government in February 2019 by sending its planes to hit imaginary terrorist camps at Balakot could have easily pushed the two countries into a catastrophic clash. But the restraint shown by Pakistan averted the likely tragedy. The situation is really very precarious. India needs to be stopped in its tracks by the powers that be and the global community before it is too late. Indian leaders must also understand that posturing and acting as a war-like state was fraught with grave dangers for India itself besides jeopardizing regional security and the chances of shared economic prosperity for which there existed an enormous potential. Regional instability has infinite cost in the shape of consigning millions to perennial sufferings and poverty.
— The writer is freelance columnist based in Islamabad.
