ISLAMABAD, 19 July — The Azad Jammu and Kashmir government is observing the accession to Pakistan week which aims at highlighting the issue and drawing international attention to the contentious Kashmir issue. The week that started on July 13 will end today (July 19).
To mark the beginning of the week Kashmir Martyrs’ Day was observed on July 13. India is trying desperately to label the freedom movement in Kashmir as terrorism, whereas it is India that has forced the armed struggle on the otherwise peaceful and docile people of Kashmir through its repression.
When the British government decided to transfer power in 1947, they did it on the basis of an agreement between the leading political parties, the Congress and the Muslim League, that contiguous Muslim majority areas would constitute Pakistan. This arrangement was enforced in the British-administered provinces. So far as the nearly 600 princely states were concerned, their rulers were to opt for accession to either India or Pakistan, taking into account their geographical situation and the composition of their population.
Problems arose with regard to the accession of three states. The Muslim ruler of Hyderabad sought an independent status. The Muslim ruler of Junagarh opted to accede to Pakistan. These two states had Hindu majorities in their population. Therefore India ignored the choice of their rulers, and occupied them by force. In the case of Junagarh, India organized a poll to establish that the majority of the population was in favor of accession to India. In the case of Kashmir, India has sought to establish its claim to the state on the basis of the accession by the Hindu Maharaja who had acceded to India in October 1947.
This was being done despite commitments made by the Governor General of India, Lord Mountbatten, as well as by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, that the final disposition of the state would be decided after ascertaining the will of its predominantly Muslim population.
When India had taken the Kashmir issue to the UN, at the end of 1947, it had complained that Pakistan was involved in supporting an armed uprising in a state that had acceded to India, and thus become a constituent part of it.
After prolonged debates, the Security Council had not accepted the Indian claim that Kashmir was an integral part of India. Its resolutions of Aug. 13, 1948 and Jan. 5, 1949 had provided that the question of accession to either India or Pakistan was to be decided by ascertaining the wishes of the people of the state through a free and impartial plebiscite.
Mr. Nehru had kept up the commitment to honor the UN resolutions till 1954. However, when Pakistan joined the Western military pacts for its own security, in 1954, he declared that this changed the situation qualitatively, and that India no longer was obliged to implement the UN resolutions on Kashmir.
Though India has used a variety of measures to establish its claim that Kashmir is an integral part of India, it has not succeeded. The international community continues to recognize the state as a disputed territory.
The continued violation by India of the UN resolutions on Kashmir remains the basic cause of tension and confrontation between the two countries. India ‘s efforts to browbeat its smaller neighbors by building up its military strength has unleashed an arms race, and after India went nuclear, Pakistan felt obliged to follow suit for its security. After their nuclear tests of 1998, the two countries have gone overtly nuclear, and the international community is stressing the resolution of political differences between the two countries, notably those over Kashmir, to avert a conflict between them that could turn nuclear.
The week observed by Kashmiris all over the world underlined that the bogey of terrorism being invoked by the Indian government is designed to mislead world public opinion over the nature of the struggle that has been launched since 1989, for which the Kashmiris have sacrificed 80,000 lives.
Furthermore, the holding of elections under the Indian Constitution does not provide the opportunity to the people of Kashmir to exercise their right to choose between Pakistan and India. That is why the people of Kashmir have consistently boycotted state elections in Kashmir.
Prior to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, India had entered into a dialogue with Pakistan to resolve outstanding issues, including the core issue of Kashmir. The Agra summit held in July 2001 had been inconclusive, and the two sides were committed to resume the process in September at New York.
However, India saw the focus on terrorism following the 9/11 events as providing an opportunity to suppress the Kashmiri struggle through force.
Repression has been further stepped up and preparations are being made to hold elections in the state in October. The Indian plan is to announce some sort of an autonomy plan for Kashmir, and to then claim that the democratic aspirations of the people have been met.
The Indian plan to mislead world opinion is accompanied by coercive diplomacy, as represented by the concentration of the Indian armed forces along the LoC and the border with Pakistan. India is insisting that the concentration, which is seriously affecting the economies of the two countries, would continue till Pakistan demonstrates it has called off support to "cross-border terrorism" in Kashmir.
President Musharraf had announced publicly on Jan. 12, 2002, that Pakistan would act in the spirit of its membership of the Coalition against Terrorism, and oppose all manifestations of terrorism, of which it was itself a victim.
Pakistan has suggested the strengthening of the UN presence along the Line of Control to monitor any movement by terrorists. India has rejected this suggestion, because it is following a policy of delinking the UN from its mandate in Kashmir.
